A fast-moving vegetation fire broke out in the hills of Oakland, California, on Friday afternoon, burning at least two homes before firefighters were able to halt its progress hours after the incident began.
The Oakland Fire Department said the fire was in the area of Interstate Highway 580, Mountain Boulevard and Keller Avenue. At least four structures in the area of Mountain Boulevard and Maynard Avenue were fully involved, according to initial reports, according to fire officials.
The fire was initially reported at around 1.30pm and three alarms had been sounded by 1.50pm. A fourth alarm was issued around 2:15 p.m. During that time, wind speeds in the area were measured around 18 km/h with gusts of up to 35 km/h.
More than 80 firefighters were on scene, along with Cal Fire air support and ground units. The fire reached a fifth alarm before forward progress was halted just before 4pm and 13 hectares burned. The total number of buildings burned was unclear.
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According to fire officials, residents of the Caballo Hills neighborhood north of Highway 580 have been evacuated. The evacuations took place along Campus Drive east of Stoneridge Court and all homes on Crystal Ridge Court. Residents of 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. At 5:15 p.m., Oakland Fire said two residences were affected by flames. They noted that dozens of homes in Maynard, Sanford, Greenridge and Canyon Oaks were threatened but not damaged during the fire.
At approximately 2:20 p.m., the California Highway Patrol issued a severe traffic alert due to the burning fire adjacent to Highway 580 and closed all westbound lanes. Firefighters were seen extinguishing a fire next to the shoulder of the westbound lanes, possibly caused by embers from the fire.
One westbound lane had reopened at 3:30 p.m.; All lanes were reopened around 4 p.m
The Bay Area was under a wind advisory on Friday, with gusts expected to reach 50-60 mph at higher elevations. The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for most of the Bay Area and the Central Coast due to the critical dry conditions.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire.
The fire rages near a catastrophic firestorm almost 33 years ago to this day. On October 19, 1991, a smoldering grass fire that had not been completely extinguished reignited and burned out of control for days in the hills of Oakland and Berkeley, killing 25 people, injuring 150 others and burning more than 3,000 homes.
