In Pictures
Raging wildfire forces evacuation of major US tourist town
Some 22,000 people were ordered out of their homes, joining tens of thousands of others trying to escape the blaze.
Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate as a huge wildfire loomed over a major US tourist town, filling the air with choking smoke.
The Caldor Fire has already torn through more than 700sq km (270 sq miles), razing hundreds of buildings.
On Monday, the blaze roared towards South Lake Tahoe, the main resort town in a popular holiday area straddling the California-Nevada border.
“The firefighting conditions, the fuels, are historic,” said Cal Fire Incident Commander Jeff Veik, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “We will put this fire out. [But] it’s not going to be today.”
The fires are being driven by a historic drought that has left swaths of the region parched as man-made climate change takes a visible – and painful – toll, and people living in the area are forced to flee.
Some 22,000 people were ordered out of their homes, joining tens of thousands of others trying to escape the fire’s relentless march.
