Early morning wildland fire near Stateline casinos

Updated: Sept. 13 11:09am.

Firefighters quickly doused a half-acre fire this morning near the Heavenly gondola in South Lake Tahoe.

This area and right behind the Stateline casinos have always been popular illegal camping sites for homeless people. Although fire officials have not determined the exact cause of the blaze, speculation this morning was that the fire could have originated at a homeless camp.

Firefighters extinguish a blaze near the Heavenly gondola Sept. 13. Photo/Taylor Flynn/Tahoe Mountain News

Crews from the U.S. Forest Service, South Lake Tahoe, Lake Valley and CalFire responded to the fire that was reported at 5:47am. It was contained by 7:30am.

“They jumped on it right away. We are fortunate,” said Lisa Herron, Forest Service spokeswoman.

This was the second fire in 12 hours the four agencies responded to.

The first was Sept. 12 at 5:30pm, about a half mile off Al Tahoe Boulevard in the Springmeyer Land Conservancy area. The fire was human caused and burned a 30 foot by 30 foot area of grass and duff.

The Sept. 13 fire was reported by a pilot taking off from Lake Tahoe Airport as being by the gondola tower 6 or 7 at Heavenly Mountain Resort.

“Significant on this fire, was the fire’s activity and the location on the slope. This fire burned with relatively intensity due to the fire’s location adjacent to steep slopes with heavy continuous fuels like trees, dead and alive, as well as, brush,” South Tahoe Division Chief Marty Scheuerman said in a press release. “The primary reasons firefighters were able to contain this fire to just a half acre was the quick aggressive response and the temperatures were in the low 30s and relative humidity was in the 60 percent range.”

Both Fires were human caused and under investigation.

— Compiled by Kathryn Reed