Oakland hills fire hits 3 homes
Oakland firefighters rushed to the Oakland hills Thursday afternoon after a blaze broke out in one home and spread to adjacent houses, according to officials.
Oakland Fire Department Chief Reginald Freeman said the fire spread to the two houses that sit on both sides of the home on the 6800 block of Aitken Drive where the blaze began. “There is fire damage to those two adjacent properties but the home of origin is a total loss because it did collapse.”
Because the building was showing signs of a collapse, firefighters had to combat the blaze differently, Freeman said. “We had to fight it from both the exposure sides” surrounding the home.
Freeman credited firefighters with quickly getting the fire under control in one of Oakland’s “high severity zones” and the Vegetation Inspection Program.
“All three properties involved did pass their vegetation inspection on July 3 of 2022 that helped us do our job to get access to the properties and deploy hand lines and suppress,” he said.
Nearby resident Hai Vu was home with his niece and nephew when they noticed a plume of smoke coming from a home down the street.
“It was a big cloud of smoke,” Vu said, adding the fire has him re-evaluating his own fire preparedness.
“It does broaden our perspective that we should be ready. We hope they (the neighbors) can soon get back to some sense of normalcy.”
The origin of the blaze started in the rear porch of the collapsed home and the cause is “most likely going to be accidental,” Freeman said.
No injuries were reported.