Caldor Fire: Blaze threatening Lake Tahoe region grew as firefighters responded elsewhere

Just last week, managers overseeing the fight against the massive wildfire scorching California's Lake Tahoe region thought they could have it contained by the start of this week.

That drastic move might never have been needed if authorities could have thrown more firefighters at the blaze when it was small. That didn't happen because the Dixie Fire was simultaneously raging across the mountain range 100 miles to the north, on the way to becoming the second-largest wildfire in California history. "I do think the Dixie and the way that it’s burned and its magnitude did impact the early response to the Caldor," said Scott Stephens, a professor of wildland fire science at the University of California, Berkeley. "It really drew resources down so much that the Caldor got very few for the first couple days."