Fire razes 2 homes in Oakland
6 others damaged and dozens evacuated in Montclair hills
A fire fueled by high winds destroyed two homes and damaged six others in the Oakland hills Monday night and into early Tuesday after apparently starting in an empty residence under construction and quickly spreading across dry hillsides, prompting evacuations, officials said.
The fire ignited around 11 p.m. Monday at a home being constructed in the 6800 block of Snake Road in the Montclair neighborhood, according to the Oakland Fire Department. “Multiple homes and hillsides on fire upon arrival, embers raining down all over,” the first firefighters to arrive reported.
Strong winds rapidly spread the fire, said Battalion Chief Dino Torres of the Oakland Fire Department. About 50 homes were evacuated.
“It looked like it was just raining fire when we got here,” Torres said from the scene. “The quick actions of the residents in noticing that there was a fire in the area and calling 911 got us up here quick. It worked our butts off.”
There were no immediate reports of injuries, and the cause of the fire was under investigation. An arson investigator was on the scene, along with the Red Cross.
One of the destroyed homes was a two-story structure under construction that Torres described as “sticks and frames.” The other destroyed home was next door, and the six damaged homes were nearby.
Dry winds on Monday night were gusting up to 30 mph, he said, causing the fire to spread quickly.
About 50 houses along Colton Boulevard, Asilomar Circle, Armour Drive and Heartwood Drive were evacuated.
Around 6:30 a.m., Torres said the fire was 99 percent under control, but smoky conditions persisted in the area.
“We might be out here all day,” Torres said, adding that firefighters would remain on guard for hot spots and flareups.
Phillip Kim, his wife and two sons, 12 and 14, were fast asleep when they were jolted awake by the sound of an explosion.
Kim, 50, who lives three lots away from where the fire started, jumped out of bed. Before long, he said, a neighbor was banging on his door, yelling, “There’s a fire.”
“When I came out, it was raining embers,” Kim said. “It was raining embers and it was falling everywhere on my property, which is mostly wood. The wood planks in the walkway and the roof caught fire. It was harrowing.”
He ushered his wife and kids into their car and told them to drive to safety. He raced back into the house to grab important documents and his computer.
“I unplugged my desktop computer and dragged it into my car. If my computer burned, I would’ve lost a lot. Things like our wedding album, all the photo albums, they would’ve been lost,” Kim said.
While embers fell all around him, Kim loaded his car. He said one ember fell on his head, scorching a small part of his scalp, and one fell onto his fleece garment and burned a hole in it.
“There was a huge plume of fire. The brush on the hill was on fire. My neighbor’s garbage can was just lit up,” Kim said.
He met up with his family at a friend’s house and kept neighbors informed with texts. About 2 a.m., Kim returned home to check the damage.
“I didn’t know whether my house was going to be standing or not because, when I left, my roof was on fire,” Kim said. “It was very agonizing.”
To his relief, his home was OK, with only minor exterior damage.
“It was a tremendous relief, and I felt such tremendous gratitude for Oakland firefighters,” Kim said.
Kim and his family have lived in the Oakland hills since 2001. And he said he’s constantly reminded of the devastating Oakland hills firestorm of 1991 that killed 25 people and wiped out nearly 3,500 homes. He said his neighborhood holds annual brush clearings and he periodically trims a large cypress tree in his front yard.
“We always live with the concern. Living in a house that’s made primarily of wood and watching what happened in Santa Rosa and in Southern California, it just takes a moment to lose everything,” he said referring to the deadly Wine Country fires in the North Bay in October and the multiple wildfires currently sweeping across areas from Santa Barbara to north San Diego County.
“I’m very grateful all my family members were safe and my neighbors are safe,” Kim said.
Not far away, Arthur Yamashita, 64, was awakened by a neighbor pounding on the door of his home near Drake Drive and Snake Road.
“He was out of breath and told us there was a fire,” Yamashita said.
Yamashita, who lives with his wife and two sons, stumbled outside. He and his neighbors filled the street, watching the blaze and listening to updates on the radio.
“You could see the smoke and the red glow,” said Yamashita, who has lived in the home for 25 years. “It was pretty unnerving. Everybody was standing outside.”
Yamashita returned inside to pack clothes and documents. But the fire was contained by firefighters, and Yamashita and his family stayed put.
Nearby on Snake Road, Leigh Ann Pincus awoke around midnight in her home and watched towering flames chew through a house under construction down the street.
“I heard a ‘woosh’ or something and I woke up,” Pincus said. “The whole back of the house is glass and all I could see was an orange glow.”
Pincus, 49, and her husband, who moved to Oakland from Florida six months ago, began frantically gathering up medication, passports and their two dogs. They loaded the car and sprayed water outside the house.
Nearby residents were running up and down the street in the predawn dark warning their neighbors about the blaze, Pincus said.
“I was terrified,” said Pincus. “We heard all about the 1991 Oakland fire, and I thought there is no way it’s not going to burn the house down. The fire was so big.”