Evacuation orders for South Lake Tahoe and road closures along three major highways have ensured major gridlock as the Caldor Fire nears.
Portions of highways 50, 88 and 89 were closed on Monday due to the Caldor Fire, leaving hundreds of drivers in hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic heading eastbound on Highway 50 toward Nevada. Due to the closures, evacuees trying to return to the Bay Area or Northern California needed to travel north to I-80 near Truckee.
The Caldor Fire was 14% contained at 177,260 acres just before noon on Monday, with 3,684 personnel battling the blaze. Eastbound evacuees didn’t move much, if at all, Monday afternoon, with occasional emergency traffic headed in the opposite direction.
Justin Sullivan, a Getty Images photojournalist, was on site as evacuees tried to pass the time in standstill traffic. Sullivan photographed one evacuee, Mel Smothers, stepping out of his car to play the violin while his dog sat in the front seat.
Photographs from Monday's traffic jam further revealed how massive the evacuation effort was. Earlier, CAL FIRE Director Thom Porter said in an afternoon briefing that El Dorado County Jail and Barton Memorial Hospital had already been evacuated from the city of about 22,000.
Scroll below for more pictures of gridlock in the eastbound evacuation.
