Fire burns hillside homes in Oakland amid day of high winds; residents evacuated

By Carlos Castañeda

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    OAKLAND, California (KPIX) — A fast-moving vegetation fire broke out Friday afternoon in the hills of Oakland, California, burning at least two homes before firefighters were able to stop forward progress hours after the incident began.

The Oakland Fire Department said the fire was burning in the area of Interstate Highway 580, Mountain Boulevard and Keller Avenue. Initial reports indicated at least four structures in the area of Mountain Boulevard and Maynard Avenue were fully involved, according to the Fire Department.

The fire was initially reported at about 1:30 p.m. and by 1:50 p.m. it had gone to three alarms. A fourth alarm was called at about 2:15 p.m. During that time, winds in the area were measured at around 11 mph with gusts up to 22 mph.

Over 80 firefighters were on the scene along with Cal Fire air support and ground units. The fire advanced to a fifth alarm before forward progress was halted just before 4 p.m. with 13 acres burned. Firefighters said at least two structures were burned as of 6 p.m.

Residents of the Caballo Hills neighborhood north of Highway 580 were evacuated, according to the Fire Department. The evacuations were in effect along Campus Drive east of Stoneridge Court and all homes on Crystal Ridge Court. Residents on Altura Place and Rifle Lane were also evacuated.

A map of the evacuation zones can be found here. An evacuation center was set up at Burckhalter Elementary School.

Oakland Fire officials later posted an update on the homes damaged by the fire after seeing conflicting reports. As of 5:15 p.m., Oakland Fire said there were two residential homes impacted by flames. They noted that dozens of homes on Maynard, Sanford, Greenridge, Canyon Oaks were threatened during the fire, but not damaged.

At about 2:20 p.m., the California Highway Patrol issued a severe traffic alert because of the fire burning adjacent to Highway 580 and closed all westbound lanes. Firefighters were seen putting out a spot fire next to the shoulder of the westbound lanes possibly started by embers of the fire.

By 3:30 p.m. one westbound lane had reopened; all lanes were reopened by 4 p.m.

The Bay Area was under a Wind Advisory Friday with gusts expected to reach 50-65 mph in higher elevations. The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for most of the Bay Area and Central Coast because of the critically dry conditions.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire.

The fire is burning close to the area of a catastrophic firestorm nearly 33 years ago to the day. On Oct. 19, 1991, a smoldering grass fire that was not completely extinguished reignited and burned out of control in the Oakland and Berkeley hills for days, killing 25 people, injuring 150 others, and burning more than 3,000 homes.

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