 Infrared aerial photograph of the firestorm. The Highway 13/24 intersection is at center. The 1991 Oakland firestorm was a historically large urban fire that occurred in the hillsides of northern Oakland, California and southeastern Berkeley on Sunday October 20, 1991, almost exactly two years after the Loma Prieta earthquake. The fire has also been called the Oakland hills firestorm, the East Bay hills fire, and the Tunnel fire (because of its origin above the west portal of the Caldecott Tunnel) in Oakland. The fire ultimately killed 25 people and injured 150 others. The 1,520 acres destroyed included 2,449 single-family dwellings and 437 apartment and condominium units. The economic loss has been estimated at $1.5 billion. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (600x972, 695 KB)[edit] Summary Infrared photograph of the Oakland Hills firestorm, taken by NASA Ames Research Center. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (600x972, 695 KB)[edit] Summary Infrared photograph of the Oakland Hills firestorm, taken by NASA Ames Research Center. ...
Oakland, founded in 1852, is the eighth-largest city in California and the county seat of Alameda County. ...
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern California, in the United States. ...
October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 72 days remaining. ...
1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on Tuesday October 17, 1989, in the greater San Francisco Bay Area in California at 5:04 p. ...
The Caldecott Tunnel is a three bore tunnel in Oakland, California. ...
This article is about the unit of measure known as the acre. ...
Origins of the fire
The fire started on Saturday, October 19, from an incompletely extinguished grass fire in the hills northeast of the intersection of California State Routes 24 and 13 (0.5 miles north of the Caldecott Tunnel west portal). Firefighters fought the five-acre fire on a steep hillside above 7151 Buckingham Blvd., and by Saturday night they thought everything was under control. {{alternateuses}} The Old Fire burning in the San Bernardino Mountains (image taken from the International Space Station) A wildfire, also known as a forest fire, vegetation fire, grass fire, brush fire, peat fire (gambut in Indonesia), bushfire (in Australasia), or hill fire, is an uncontrolled fire often occurring in wildland...
State Route 24 is a heavily-traveled east-west freeway in the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay Area of northern California between Oakland (junction Interstate 580, the MacArthur Freeway) and Walnut Creek (junction Interstate 680). ...
State Route 13 is a short loop in Alameda County, California currently built from Interstate 580 in Oakland to Interstate 80 in Berkeley. ...
It re-ignited on Sunday, October 20, as a brush fire at about 11 AM and rapidly spread southwest with the near 50 miles-an-hour wind, jumping over both highways within an hour, and quickly overwhelming local and even regional firefighting resources. The fires quickly descended downhill from the origin at Buckingham and then consumed the Parkwoods Apartments near the Caldecott Tunnel. Within half an hour the fire jumped across Highway 24, and spread southeast across the hills where it ignited hundreds of houses in the Forest Park neighborhood on the the northwest edge of the Montclair district. Within the hour, the fire also jumped south across Highway 13, spreading downhill into upper Rockridge and close to the border of Piedmont. To the west from the point of origin the fire climbed up to Hiller Highlands by noon, and then raced down into the southern hills of Berkeley. Montclair (also known as the Montclair District) is a neighborhood of Oakland, California. ...
Location of Rockridge in the City of Oakland. ...
The city of Piedmont highlighted within Alameda County Piedmont is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. ...
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern California, in the United States. ...
These hot, dry northeasterly winds, dubbed by the media at this time as "Diablo winds," periodically occur during the early fall season. The fire began generating its own wind, the defining characteristic of a firestorm. The self-generated winds interacted with the ambient wind to create erratic, dangerous gusts which in turn helped produce numerous cyclonic swirls. All of these combined to help spread the fire, tossing embers in all directions. The wind shifted to the west by midafternoon, driving the fire to the southeast. At about 9 PM, the wind abruptly stopped, giving firefighters a chance to gain containment of the fire. Diablo wind is a regional term for the föhn wind that often occurs in the San Francisco Bay Area. ...
A firestorm in Hamburg (Germany) during WWII A firestorm is the mass movement of air resulting from fire, creating a fire of extreme intensity over a wide area. ...
Firefighting response and difficulties
 Remains of houses destroyed by the fire Assistance from Bay Area firefighting agencies as far as Fremont was quickly mobilized and sent to the fire zone. The California Department of Forestry (CDF) dispatched several tankers which doused the fire with tons of fire retardant all day long. The CDF established a base at the Naval Air Station in Alameda. Additionally, the Naval Air Station itself sent its own firefighting equipment and material to the scene of the fire. The next morning, before full control had been gained, satellite photographs, especially infrared (heat-sensing) photographs, were provided with the help of NASA Ames Research Center's Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) to aid firefighters in plotting the extent of the fire and spotting hidden hotspots. Image File history File links Oakland_firestorm_1. ...
Image File history File links Oakland_firestorm_1. ...
Fremont (IPA: ) is a city in California which was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Irvington, Mission San Jose, Niles, and Warm Springs. ...
Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...
A fire retardant is a substance that helps to delay or prevent combustion. ...
Naval Air Station Alameda (NAS Alameda) was a USN naval air station in Alameda, California, on San Francisco Bay. ...
Image of a small dog taken in mid-infrared (thermal) light (false color) Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of visible light, but shorter than that of radio waves. ...
Aerial View of Moffett Field and NASA Ames Research Center. ...
The firefighting teams, however, were overwhelmed by the firestorm, and for a variety of reasons. Flames took out power lines to seventeen pumping stations in the Oakland water system. Outside fire teams faced various equipment compatibility issues such as antiquated water lines being too narrow to supply adequate water pressure. Firefighters in some areas simply ran out of water. [1]
In addition to the winds, another important contributing factor to the rapid spread was the presence of thick, dry vegetation close to many dwellings, and non-native volatile eucalyptus trees. Image File history File links Claremont_Res_91_Oak_Fire. ...
Image File history File links Claremont_Res_91_Oak_Fire. ...
Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants, and is, by far, the most abundant biotic element of the biosphere. ...
Species About 700; see the List of Eucalyptus species Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of trees (and a few shrubs), the members of which dominate the tree flora of Australia. ...
The same conditions contributed to a major conflagration in Berkeley in 1923 (named the 1923 Berkeley Fire). The 1923 Berkeley Fire was a conflagration which consumed some 640 structures, including 584 homes in the densely-built neighborhoods north of the campus of the University of California in Berkeley, California on September 17, 1923. ...
The fire also threatened to destroy the historic Claremont Resort hotel but was stopped just before reaching it. The spectacular and ominous scene in front of the hotel was carried on television screens around the world as the media gathered there. The Claremont Resort & Spa is an historic hotel that straddles the border between Berkeley, California and Oakland. ...
By October 28, the fires had been contained.
Aftermath Throughout the years since the fire, most of the homes had been rebuilt with more fire resistant designs, and built to abide by a new state law requiring homeowners to create a 100-foot-wide firebreak around their homes. Yet the eucalyptus trees had regrown in many areas and continue to be a problem today.
In response to issues about firefighting equipment during the disaster, Oakland firefighters now carry wildland firefighting gear or "Nomex" [2]. This gear is what all wildland firefighters wear during operations. Prior to and during this firestorm, Oakland city firefighters were not provided with this gear and were forced to don turn-outs or structure gear. This type of gear greatly hampered their ability to move quickly and stay cooler during a wildland fire. NOMEX® is the brand name of a flame retardant meta-aramid material marketed and first discovered by DuPont in the 1970s. ...
The 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park Fire was a large forest fire that took place in British Columbia, Canada in 2003. ...
The word turnout can refer to: Voter turnout A railroad switch or point This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
Hose couplings are now standard everywhere because the lack of a standard in 1991 led to water running out nearly everywhere. Water cisterns and a new hills fire station were added, and radio communications were improved. However, Berkeley firefighters still use different radio frequencies than Oakland, though they carry extra radios that allow them to communicate using the 800 megahertz system. [3] The hose coupling is the metal piece on the end of a hose to connect it to extra hose or hose appliances. ...
A cistern (Middle English cisterne, from Latin cisterna, from cista, box, from Greek kistê, basket) is a receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. ...
Trivia - This disaster was included as one of several different disaster scenarios in the game SimCity 2000.
- Game designer Will Wright used his experience of rebuilding his life after his home was burned down due to the fire as basis for the concept of the hit computer game The Sims.
SimCity 2000 (SC2K) is a simulation/city building computer game and the second installment in the SimCity series of games. ...
Publicity photo of Will Wright and a character from The Sims William R. Wright (born January 20, 1960) is an American computer game designer and co-founder of the game development company, Maxis. ...
The Sims is a strategic life simulation computer game created by game designer Will Wright, published by Maxis, and distributed by Electronic Arts. ...
References 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
October 22 is the 295th day of the year (296th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 70 days remaining. ...
2001: A Space Odyssey. ...
November 3 is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 58 days remaining. ...
1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Old Farts by the Sometimes-United Nations. ...
October 22 is the 295th day of the year (296th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 70 days remaining. ...
1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
February is the second month of the calendar year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ...
1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...
March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ...
1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 72 days remaining. ...
2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Maps - Google Maps - Satellite Imagery of Burned Area
- NASA Aerial Photo of Fire
Eyewitness Footage
See also 1923 Berkeley Fire The 1923 Berkeley Fire was a conflagration which consumed some 640 structures, including 584 homes in the densely-built neighborhoods north of the campus of the University of California in Berkeley, California on September 17, 1923. ...
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