By 1300 hours it was evident that additional resources would be
needed to stop the progress of the fire in the flatland areas and on the
multiple hillside fronts. With the wind coming down from the hills, the fire
was being pushed toward the southwest and there were no natural barriers
that appeared to be capable of stopping it. Both Oakland and Berkeley
recognized the need for more resources at the same time and both
requested additional strike teams through Alameda County.
Oakland requested three additional strike teams to respond to
Grizzly Peak and one to the intersection of Golden Gate and Acacia in the
Rockridge district. Berkeley requested two strike teams to respond to a
staging area at Berkeley High School, approximately two miles from the
fire. Both requests were logged at the Alameda County Mutual Aid
Coordination Center (Lawrence Liver-more National Laboratory) at 1309
hours. Two additional Alameda County task forces were mobilized, one
each from the South and East zones, and the remainder of the request was
relayed to OES Region II. Oakland also requested additional command
officers to assist in managing the incident, and this request was fulfilled
from fire departments in Alameda County.
The strike teams that had been requested earlier were beginning to
arrive by 1300 hours. Most had difficulty reaching their assigned
destinations and establishing contact with the command structure.
The strike teams that had been directed to stage at Hiller and
Tunnel Roads had difficulty with traffic congestion, particularly northbound
on Highway 13. By the time they arrived, the fire had destroyed the area
they were en route to protect and had jumped over the top of the staging
location. The mutual aid radio channel was hopelessly jammed with
communications, and they were unable to make contact with the Command
Post. The Command Post had been moved to the Highways 24/13
interchange, and some of the strike teams made direct contact at this
location.
When the first of the strike teams made their way up Hiller Road,
between 1315 and 1330 hours, they found blocks of burning rubble. Every
structure in the development was destroyed before any fire suppression
crews arrived. The intense fire had already moved on into Grandview
Canyon, and the strike teams were able to drive through most of the Hiller
Highlands development to Charing Cross Road, where they discovered the
bodies of Police Officer Grubensky and several civilians. One badly
burned survivor was also located and was transported out to a medical
helicopter for transfer to a bum unit.
The companies arriving at the east side of the fire were also unable
to establish radio contact with the Command Post. As they reached the
area of Fish Ranch Road and Grizzly Peak Boulevard they found a mixture
of Oakland, Contra Costa, and CDF units, attempting to regroup and
initiate defensive actions. Most of the resources that arrived in this area
deployed to the upper reaches of Broadway Terrace, where they linked up
with Oakland companies to protect structures on the right flank of the fire,
or with the CDF forces that were trying to stop the fire and protect
structures in Claremont Canyon. These battles continued throughout the
afternoon as single companies and grouped resources fought a house to
house battle with the flames on both fronts.
The City of Piedmont had already committed one engine company
to Oakland and had recalled all off-duty personnel to the station. The
Piedmont Fire Chief, while en route to the station, saw fires burning in
the Rockridge district, with no fire apparatus or personnel in sight.
Recognizing that Piedmont was directly in the path of the advancing fire,
he decided to commit the two remaining engines to Rockridge, in hopes of
stopping the fire before it reached Piedmont. The Piedmont companies
operated in the Florence and Modoc area for the remainder of the day.
San Francisco Strike Team 1 was deployed north of the Piedmont units.
One of the San Francisco strike team leaders described the situation
on his arrival at the command post, which at that point had relocated to
the middle of Highway 24 near the Broadway overpass. “It was eerie --
very smoky in the area --- almost like night” Structures were burning
within a few hundred feet on both sides of the elevated roadway and
shrubs in the median were ablaze from a burning brand. As soon as they
arrived, the strike team was split to attack the fires on both sides of the
roadway, with two engines going to the north side and the strike team
leader taking three engines to attack the fire on the south side.
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