Campfire started Tahoe blaze

U.S. Forest Service investigators late Friday announced that the cause of the devastating Angora fire that burned hundreds of homes and put this resort community on edge was an illegal fire started at a popular campground.

Addressing a crowd of 500 residents packed into the Lake Tahoe Middle School gymnasium, officials asked for the public’s help in identifying anyone who might have been seen Sunday in the area around Seneca Lake.

“The fire was started 150 yards from the closest road,” investigator Donna Deacon said.

The area is also known by locals as Hippie Lake, because homeless people and others often pitch illegal encampments there, officials say.

The news didn’t make Delicia Spees feel any better. This week the longtime South Lake Tahoe resident lost her home to the fire. On Friday night, she accepted hugs of consolation from neighbors, one of whom gave her a Louis Vuitton jacket and promised more.

“Twenty-nine years at that home -- gone just like that,” she said, holding a wadded tissue to her eyes.

She said the area had been ripe for a major fire. The only question was when. “There was lots of dead timber there,” she said.

For residents, Friday was bittersweet as officials earlier in the day allowed scores of families back into the fire zone to check on their properties, many for the first time since the fire started.

Tom and Joan Worrell got some good news. They had tried four times previously to reach their home, only to be turned back by officials for safety reasons. Neighbors who sneaked through the fire perimeter told them their home was one of only six of 24 on their street that were spared.

But on Friday, they saw it for themselves.

“There is was, still standing,” Joan Worrell said of the two-story, 2,700-square-foot house. “It was the best thing I’ve seen in a long, long time.”

The decision to allow the families back in was another sign that authorities finally have the upper hand on the devastating blaze, which scorched more than 3,100 acres over six days and destroyed 254 homes and 75 other structures.

At a news conference, Rich Hawkins, incident commander for the U.S. Forest Service, said the fire was 80% contained. He said it had not spread despite a day of gusty winds -- a sign that the fire with breathing its last. He said Tuesday was the goal for containment.

“This fire is going out pretty fast,” he said. “I’m surprised.”

Hawkins said manpower in the effort was significantly scaled back Friday, from 2,197 firefighters to 1,336. He said the number would be cut again in coming days, to just over 200 by the end of the Fourth of July holiday.

Officials also said they would fight the blaze only during the day, forgoing more dangerous nighttime efforts.

“The entire nation is watching what we spend on these firefighting efforts,” he said. “And Congress has said that they would like to see us get a handle on these kinds of operations.”

He said such wood-burning blazes often burn for months and warned that control of the Angora fire might not come for some time.

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john.glionna@latimes.com