Panel to discuss smoke from USFS burns in Tahoe
By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal
Where there’s fire, there’s smoke.
April Cole can certainly attest to that after a controlled burn at Lake Tahoe last April sent thick clouds of smoke billowing east to her home near the Carson City-Douglas County line.
“It was terrible. Oh my gosh, we couldn’t even breathe,” Cole said of a situation that had her close up her windows and posed particular trouble for her father, who lives next door and suffers a respiratory ailment.
That controlled burn, started April 18 by the U.S. Forest Service to lessen fire danger at Tahoe’s upscale community of Glenbrook, is scheduled to be discussed Wednesday by a state commission established to examine fire-related issues.
“We’re going to kind of talk about how it happened and how it can be avoided in the future,” said Pete Anderson, Nevada state forester and a member of the three-member commission established by Gov. Jim Gibbons to follow up on recommendations made by a joint Nevada-California task force formed in the wake of the disastrous Angora Fire of 2007, which burned 254 homes outside South Lake Tahoe.