Caldor Fire takes a toll on South Lake Tahoe businesses

Instead, Delgadillo closed his business, created a WhatsApp chat for his employees and monitored conditions from afar. A number of casinos and hotels in Reno are offering discounts to evacuees of the Caldor Fire, including Boomtown Casino Hotel, Aloft Hotels Reno, Grand Sierra Resort, The ROW and the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. Massive plumes have erupted in flames, burning embers carried by gusts have skipped miles ahead of fire lines, and fires that typically die down at night have made long runs in the dark. With an average of 278 sunny days a year, the chances are high that you will enjoy great weather conditions during your summer and winter. Still, South Tahoe gaming revenue is up 13.3 percent for the first nine months of the year compared to 2019, when the market produced $225.6 million in gaming revenue. Before the September shutdown, South Tahoe was 22.9 percent ahead of 2019 revenue totals. “This illustrates how strong gaming had been running up until the fire,” Lawton said.

• The small Lakeside Casino Resort never reopened after the state’s 78-day shutdown was lifted.
• The local emergency had been issued on August 26th, and then was ratified by the council five days later.
• Work continues on the Nevada Department of Transportation projects at Lake Tahoe on SR-28 and SR-431.
• But the area is not out of danger yet as a warning for dangerous fire weather took effect for much of fire-scarred Northern California from Thursday afternoon through Friday.

The Caldor fire has scorched more than 510 square kilometers and destroyed at least 461 homes since Aug. 14 in the Sierra Nevada southwest of the lake. Although there were no evacuations ordered for Lake Tahoe, it was impossible to ignore a blanket of haze so thick and vast that it closed schools for two days in Reno, Nevada, which is about 100 kilometers from the fire.

Power outage affecting over 4,500 South Lake Tahoe customers

The Caldor Fire is one of more than a dozen major blazes in California. Throughout the West, at least 90 wildfires have kept firefighters busy this summer. Calendar year 2000 was South Lake Tahoe’s highest-ever 12-month gaming revenue period at $352.6 million. South Lake Tahoe’s gaming totals through September are still down 28.1 percent from the 2000 record.

The Dixie, the second-largest wildfire in state history at 1,215 square miles, was burning about 65 miles north of the Lake Tahoe-area blaze. More firefighters arrived just after dark Monday, and many were dispatched to protect homes in the Christmas Valley area, about 10 miles from the city of South Lake Tahoe.

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The gaming floors at the major casinos on Lake Tahoe’s South Shore were closed this week as a raging wildfire inched to within three miles of the mostly vacated lakeside communities. As of Tuesday morning, the fire was about 7 miles from the lake, but she said forestry officials did not know how close the flames were to city limits, and crews had not been able to go into burned areas to assess damage. South Lake Tahoe was eerily empty and the air thick and hazy with smoke from the Caldor Fire, one of two major blazes plaguing California. The fire spared the city, including Clearly Tahoe’s new boat, and thousands of South Lake Tahoe residents were allowed to return home Sunday as firefighters made progress beating back the more than 216,000-acre blaze. But Clearly Tahoe and the rest of the lake’s boat rental companies, restaurants and hotels lost something that they’ll never get back — a huge chunk of their peak-season revenue. The casino parking lots were transformed into command centers for the agencies fighting the Caldor Fire. “Our biggest concern was the community,” said Hall, who grew up on the California side of Lake Tahoe before starting her career with Caesars.