We report on the study of quenching and thermal lensing based on simple effective lens approximation in a Cr2+:CdSe active medium, including detailed research on the medium's luminescence lifetime dependence on temperature in the 236-391 K range. This work has allowed us to partially overcome the limitations associated with thermal effects in the medium and build a laser system that allowed power scalability to be realized for the Cr2+:CdSe laser. Longitudinal pumping using a continuous-wave Tm-doped fiber laser at 1.908 mu m produced an output of 2.3 W at 2.65 mu m with an absorbed pump power slope efficiency of 47.6%, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the highest output power achieved in Cr:CdSe continuous-wave lasers. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement