Carquinez Strait: Vallejo, Crockett residents forced to escape smoke
Twin fires — one in Vallejo and the other just across the Carquinez Strait in Crockett — erupted Sunday morning, causing evacuations in the two counties and shutting down Interstate 80 and the Carquinez Bridge.
The fire in Solano County’s Vallejo, dubbed the Glen Cove Fire, started just after 9 a.m., burning about 150 acres, jumping Interstate 80 in Vallejo and sweeping east to west, spreading onto the 1,200student campus of the California Maritime Academy. There were no reported injuries or homes
burned.
The fire across the strait in Contra Costa County, named the Sky Fire, erupted about an hour later, burning another 150 acres along Cummings Skyway near Crockett. It came close to the NuStar Energy fuel storage plant, which was evacuated along with most of the town of Crockett.
Residents on both shores packed up and fled after the flames seemed to spread at will, burning cars, causing explosions and filling the sky with the same brown smoke that was choking Sonoma County to the north.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Ernie Roberto, whose house on Suncliff Place was just uphill from the bridge toll plaza. “I am packed and loaded. I’m ready to go.”
Thick dry winds sent smoke and leaves tumbling through the neighborhood as residents strapped white masks on their faces and splashed their homes with garden hoses. Lines of orange flames crept alongside the shoreline.
I80 was closed for five hours between Highway 4 and Interstate 780 and reopened just before 3 p.m. About that time, Vallejo firefighters declared that the Glen Cove Fire had been stopped and that firefighters were “mopping up.”
In Vallejo, Mason Garifi, 21, a senior at the Maritime Academy, which is part of the Cal State system, was lying in his dorm room bed when he smelled smoke and heard a fire alarm.
“I thought, ‘It’s probably a good idea to get out of here,’ so I packed a bag,” he said. He picked up a friend and drove out of town past the flames.
Academy president Tom Cooper said about 200 students and workers assembled in a parking lot and boarded buses to another academy building in downtown Vallejo. He said a campus facilities building had been damaged but there had been no injuries.
There were conflicting reports from officials about whether embers from the Glen Cove Fire jumped the Carquinez Strait, igniting the fire on the Contra Costa side.
By early evening, the Sky Fire was about 85% contained, Cal Fire said. It was burning not far from the site of NuStar Energy’s 24tank fuel storage facility that caught fire on Oct. 15 in an incident that remains under investigation.
Highvoltage PG&E power lines are located near the area where the Vallejo fire started, and those lines were charged and operating as usual despite mass blackouts throughout Northern California designed to prevent wildfires from igniting, according to spokesman Paul Doherty.
The cause of the Vallejo fire was still under investigation and the utility did not say that its lines were responsible. Doherty said the power lines had remained operational because wind speeds in Vallejo were not high enough to trigger a shutdown.
Residents of Crockett south of Pomona Avenue were temporarily evacuated but cleared to return after about two hours.
The fire jumped across Cummings Skyway, an eastwest thoroughfare south of Crockett, and shut that road. Some evacuating residents found themselves running short of escape routes. Many were diverted to San Pablo Avenue.
No structures had been damaged in Contra Costa County by the Sky Fire, Contra Costa Fire Protection District spokesman Steve Hill said. Winds were blowing flames away from populated areas of Crockett, he added.
Still, as the smoke thickened, more than two dozen residents of Carquinez Vista Manor, a threestory apartment house for seniors, packed up and left.
“Should I take my car?” asked longtime resident Barbara Lopez from beneath her face mask.
“Yes!” responded a manor worker. “And whoever you can fit in it.”
Residents in masks watched the growing fleet of fire trucks and flashing lights.
“I’m inclined to stay, but not sure what I’d do if fire does come this way,” said Alastair Bolton, who owns a twostory building at Second Avenue and Ceres Street that houses the Milano art gallery and Funky Frog boutique.
Bolton tossed business papers and his children’s homework into his car and was headed south to Rodeo, where his wife’s mother lives.
“I think it’s going to be OK here, but everything’s so dry and the wind changes every minute,” he said. “It’s the new season in California.”
Across the strait, Vallejo resident Michael Mayorga was loading his car as quickly as he could with flames closing in on his Jade Circle house.
“It’s very bad, very bad,” he said. “It’s coming up the grass right now.”
Loud explosions could be heard in the area. Helicopters and airplanes dropped water and retardant on the flames.
The Crockett fire was one of several that hit Contra Costa County on Sunday. Brush fires burned on Bethel Island, Oakley and Clayton, causing evacuations and damaging a Bethel Island gas station building.
“These fires have spanned the entire county in the course of seven hours,” said Hill. “This would be a good time for people to stay home and prepare for possible evacuations.”
A resident of the Glen Cove neighborhood, three miles southeast of downtown Vallejo, was treated for smoke inhalation by a firefighter and released, apparently the only firerelated injury. In Martinez, near a farmers’ market, seven people were hospitalized for injuries caused by a falling tree apparently downed by high winds.
Winds felled trees elsewhere in Contra Costa County, impeding firefighters through the day, including on the road to a fire in Clayton, which only had one way in and out. Chronicle staff writers John King, Rachel Swan and J.D. Morris contributed to this report.
Chris Preovolos is Hearst national photo editor. Matthias Gafni, Mike Lerseth and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: matthias. gafni@sfchronicle.com, mlerseth@schronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle. com Twitter: @Preovolos, @mgafni, @MikeLerseth