East Bay Hills Fire (Oakland-Berkely, CA - October 1991)

The largest dollar fire loss in United States history occurred in the East Bay Hills, within the California Cities of Oakland and Berkeley, between October 19 and 22, 1991. Twenty-five lives were lost and more than 3,000 structures were destroyed by a wildland-urban interface fire in one of the most heavily populated metropolitan areas of the North American continent. The fire completely overwhelmed the firefighting forces of the area, consuming everything in its path, and was only stopped when the Diablo wind conditions abated. The wind had threatened to drive the fire across the entire City of Oakland.

» Overview
» Key Issues
» Location
» Climatic Conditions
» Vegetation
» Land Development on the Hills
» Burning Characteristics
» Ignition Sources
» Previous Fires in the East Bay Hills
» Other Wildland-Urban Interface Fires in California
» Regulatory Efforts
» Fire Protection Agencies
» How The Fire Started
» The Restart
» Major Flare-Up
» Communication Problems
» Critical Period
» Totally Out of Control
» Mutual Aid Begins to Arrive
» Lives Saved and Lost
» All Forces Retreating
» Fire Jumps Freeway
» Hiller Highlands
» Berkeley Front
» California Department of Forestry Operations
» Additional Strike Teams
» Claremont Hotel
» New Outbreaks
» Strategy - Continuing Battle on Multiple Fronts
» Evacuations
» Tactics
» Assessment of the Situation
» Unified Command Structure
» Additional Resources Ordered
» Wind Changes
» Monday Through Thursday
» Losses
» Analysis - Fire Risk
» Analysis - Fire Origin
» Analysis - Fire Characteristics
» Analysis - Wildland-Urban Interface Characteristics
» Analysis - Initial Response
» Analysis - Training and Preparation
» Analysis - Incident Management
» Analysis - Communications
» Analysis - Public Information
» Analysis - Mutual Aid
» Analysis - Volunteer Response
» Analysis - Aircraft Operations
» Analysis - Water Supply
» Analysis - Stress
» Analysis - Firefighter Safety
» Analysis - Emergency Medical Services
» Analysis - Evacuation
» Lessons Learned

Report 060 of the Major Fires lnvestlgatlon Project conducted by TrlData Corporation under contract EMW-90-C-3338 to the United States Fire Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency. Investigated by: J. Gordon Routley