The winds are going to work against us." Hawkins said if the fire were to shift slightly south, thousands of additional structures would be at risk. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Kit Bailey, who heads the U.S. Forest Service in the Tahoe Basin, said the origin of the fire has been pinpointed to an area 300 to 400 yards south of Seneca Pond, a popular spot for joggers and teens during the summer.
Fire officials believe it was unintentionally started by people because Panicked residents of South Lake Tahoe run for safety as fire approaches their home Tuesday afternoon. there was no lightning when it began. Tuesday's bad news began about 3 p.
m. when a fresh plume of smoke started to rise near Tallac Village and residents scrambled to save all they could from their homes. One man stood atop his house with a garden hose dousing the roof.
Her roommate, Maricela Rodriguez, an X-ray technician at Barton Memorial Hospital, abruptly left work to gather supplies. "I got some photos, blankets, extra clothes, some dry food that will last me a few weeks," Rodriguez said. The crackling flames were obscured by thick gray smoke that towered over the neighborhood of houses, apartments, chalets, businesses and the lakeshore.
Fire engines with sirens screaming poured into the subdivision. Overhead, the loud thrum of helicopter rotors added to the cacophony. John Coyle cut short a vacation in Minnesota after he heard about Sunday's fire.
He had invited displaced people to stay at his subdivision home; now, he was suddenly in the position of asking friends for a place to stay. Coyle drove out with important files, bottles of wine and pictures. But Coyle said he regretted leaving one cherished possession behind: "My brand new 50-inch plasma TV.
" The afternoon evacuation was almost a replay of Sunday when residents evacuated their homes in Meyers, where the fire hit first. Tuesday, authorities allowed those residents to return to their homes - or what was left - for the first time since the devastating weekend fire. But the destruction seemed almost intentionally selective: Behind one destroyed house, a two-story wood-frame, surrounded by trees, looked no worse for wear.
That pattern continued on block after block. Missy Springer, 54, and her husband, Al, 71, knew the house they'd lived in for nine years was gone before they arrived Tuesday morning to see what was left. They saw pictures of its charred remains online.
But Missy Springer had to see it with her own eyes. "Somehow you have to go out there and stand there and look at it to grasp you have nothing left," she said. A similar scene was played out in the forested neighborhood above Lake Tahoe.
David Hartzell, 19, picked through the rubble of his lifelong home, accompanied by his father, a retired firefighter with the South Lake Tahoe Fire Department. Here's what they found: the charred remains of a sword used in World War II handed down by Hartzell's grandfather; a footlong piece of his dad's old trombone; two doll heads with stained black faces; and, ironically, a Zippo lighter. "All my books are scattered right there," he said, pointing to a heap of ash.
Hartzell struggled to make sense of what was happening. "I don't know," he said. "I still feel I can come back and get stuff that's not here.
" The former Santa Clara resident who moved to Lake Tahoe eight years ago for the outdoor life also lost her home, and was bracing herself to go see what was left. She, at least, was able to retrieve her pets - a lab named Samantha and an Aussie-chow mix named Clara. "They're like my children," she said.
Mercury News Staff Writer Sandra Gonzales and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Rodney Foo at rfoo@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5258.
The winds are going to work against us.
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