Tahoe is on fire. At least, the wilderness around it is.

This graphic, from CNN, shows (vaguely) the extent of the fire:


Ignore the fact that this appears to have been done by an intern using MS Paint, and instead focus on Fallen Leaf Lake in the middle.

My extended family has a cabin there, roughly centered on the eastern shore of the lake. I've been there literally every summer of my life. I got married at Stanford Sierra Camp at the south end of the lake. So an important part of my life is in pretty significant fire danger.

Happily, the fire hasn't actually reached the lake yet. This missive, from the head of the Stanford Alumni Association, talks about the fire and the camp:

The "Angora Fire" started early yesterday afternoon in the area west of South Lake Tahoe over the ridge from Sierra Camp near Hwy 50. Based on the latest reports, the fire has now destroyed nearly 200 homes and consumed over 2,500 acres. The fire has traveled up to, but not over, the ridge located between Hwy 50 and Fallen Leaf Lake. There have been some spot fires on the Fallen Leaf Lake side of the ridge, but no structures have burned in this area.

...

I spoke with Antja Thompson, Deputy Director of SSC, this morning and she provided the following update. All indications are that camp has not been hit by the fire yet. The good news is that the prevailing winds are headed away from camp. That said, winds were a big problem yesterday, and a significant change in wind patterns could send the fire our way again. Power is out in the entire Fallen Leaf area and smoke is quite an issue. It is currently unclear when SSC will again be habitable, especially understanding the situation with power and smoke.

So the cabin will be a mess from all the smoke and ash, but if we're lucky, it'll still be there. 200 families won't be able to say the same, of course.

The fire was started by a human, of course, the way the most devastating blazes are. Sometimes I hate people.