Oakland marks anniversary of October 1991 inferno amid red flag warnings
As another historic fire year ravages California, Oakland firefighters marked a solemn anniversary this week remembering the deadly 1991 Oakland Hills Firestorm.
The ferocious blaze that swept through the Oakland and Berkeley Hills Oct. 20, 1991, killed 25 people, destroyed more than 3,300 homes — nearly all in Oakland — claimed more than $1 billion in damage and became a terrifying precursor to the urban-wildland fires that have become so much a part of 21st-century firefighting — and life — in the Golden State.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency in a report following the devastating blaze said the fire “exceeded the worst expectations in the most concerned firefighters.”
“It was a fire that demonstrates how natural forces may be beyond the control of human intervention and should cause a renewed look at the risk of wildland-urban interface fire disasters,” administrators wrote in their report.
Among the dead, Oakland Police Officer John Grubensky and Oakland Fire Battalion Chief James Riley. Both were killed trying to help people escape the flames, Oakland Fire Chief Melinda Drayton told San Francisco television station KPIX-TV Tuesday.
Drayton’s family was one of the many who lost their home in the firestorm 29 years ago.
“While many years have passed since the devastating firestorm raged through the hills in October 1991, for the Oakland firefighters who fought the fire, residents who lost homes and those who returned to rebuild, the memories are vivid and still evoke strong emotion,” Drayton said.
The fire, burning Oct. 19 in a canyon near the Caldecott Tunnel had been all but extinguished at just seven acres, according to news reports. But the next morning, pushed by heavy, Diablo winds, the fire first known as the “Tunnel Fire” blazed anew and its destructive march through the Oakland hills had begun. Firefighters finally wrestled down the blaze Oct. 22, 1991.
Drayton pointed out community and neighborhood groups who worked in the years since the disaster “to promote and inform residents on the very real threat that wildfire poses,” through promoting vegetation inspection, emergency response training and community preparedness,” KPIX reported.
Drayton also remembered the families who lost loved ones and honored the firefighters who battled and eventually beat the deadly blaze, along with first responders and volunteers.
All, Drayton said, “sacrificed so much to keep our residents safe during that frightening time in our city’s history.”
As during that October nearly 30 years ago, eyes were again on the weather Wednesday. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning stretching from the Wine Country to Gilroy beginning 10 p.m. Wednesday through 8 a.m. Friday.
A fire weather watch was issued for the North Bay Mountains, Santa Cruz Mountains, the Diablo Range and the same East Bay Hills that were roughly the site of the inferno nearly three decades ago.
This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 3:41 PM with the headline "Oakland marks anniversary of October 1991 inferno amid red flag warnings."
.JPG)