Kyburz Fire Update: Highway 50 west of Lake Tahoe reopened to one-lane traffic
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Fri, 07/24/2015 - 5:53pm
Here's the latest from the Kyburz Fire burning in El Dorado County west of South Lake Tahoe: Highway 50 was re-opened Friday for one lane of traffic at 5:30 p.m. with vehicles being escorted through the fire area. The escorted portion is about a mile long due to firefighting equipment on the roadway.
East bound traffic will be metered from Sly Park to Meyers and escorted from Alder Bridge through the fire area. West bound traffic will be escorted from Sand Flat through the Fire area.
Caltrans has been preparing to have Highway 50 fully opened for travel by late Friday. Trees along the roadway that were of concern have been addressed, either by heavy amounts of water or by cutting them down, said Caltrans spokesman Steve Nelson. The Kyburz fire is burning on both sides of the highway. It has jumped across the American river heading east.
There's a big backlog of traffic on Highway 88 due to traffic being diverted from Highway 50 to Highway 49 and over to Highway 88. There was a paving project by Caltrans District 10 which District 3, the one over El Dorado County, was unaware of.
Caltrans had the contractor shut down the project for the day to alleviate the traffic according to Nelson.
Hwy 80 to Hwy 89 from the north is also a detour, and with no road construction Friday-Sunday, this may be an easier route.
Ice House Reservoir is closed to boating due to the need for water to be drawn to fight the fire. So far, the fire remains at 200 acres burned with 30 percent containment.
From the incident overview: The Kyburz fire was reported at approximately 1:58 pm on Thursday. Surface fire with isolated torching. Firefighters making good progress. The fire is on both sides of Highway 50 and on the south side of the American River. Crews were able to tie in line around the north side of the fire and will be working on reinforcing that today.
The south side of the fire (south of Highway 50) has quite a few dead trees that are causing short range spot fires. Crews worked on structure protection in the 29 and 30 mile summer home tracts overnight.
About 90 percent of the fire is on the north side of the river burning in steep slopes below Weber Mill Road. The west side of the fire has burned into light fuels from the 2013 Kyburz fire. PG&E power-lines have been de-energized between Whitehall and Kyburz. Cooler than normal temperatures and light winds have kept the fire to a low rate of spread.
Evacuations have been downgraded to voluntary. Go to our sister website, SouthTahoeNow.com for updates.
