East Bay Hills Fire (Oakland-Berkely, CA - October 1991) » Mutual Aid Begins to Arrive

The first outside assistance to arrive came up Fish Ranch Road on the back side of the hills. A 1st Alarm assignment, consisting of Orinda, Moraga, and Contra Costa County units, had been dispatched by Contra Costa County Communications (ConFire) at 1135 hours, on a report from a citizen of fire on the hilltop above the Caldecott Tunnel. The Orinda Battalion Chief (BC45) requested a 2nd Alarm at 1143 hours, when he reached the top of the hill and saw the magnitude of the fire on the Oakland side. It was impossible for BC45 to make contact with the Oakland IC by radio due to the extremely heavy radio traffic, so the Contra Costa companies went to work with the Oakland companies, trying to protect exposed houses and to stop the fire from topping the hills along Marlborough Terrace and Grizzly Peak Boulevard.

Two minutes after requesting the 2nd Alarm, BC45 advised ConFire that Oakland was requesting all available units. Learning that Oakland had established a Command Post at the bottom of the hill, BC45 assigned a Captain as “Division A,” to direct the Contra Costa units, while he drove to the Command Post location.

ConFire had already been contacted by the Alameda County Mutual Aid Coordinator, asking for one strike team and, when the ConFire dispatcher telephoned Oakland Fire Communications for routing instructions, the request was increased to two strike teams. Contra Costa County was also working a multiple alarm brush fire in Franklin Canyon, six miles northeast of this fire. ConFire began to call-up additional strike teams from the remaining resources within Contra Costa County to respond to Oakland.

As the fire ignited structures and began to jump the street along Marlborough Terrace, firefighters had to abandon their defensive strategy and evacuate. Companies had already been forced out of Buckingham and Westmoorland, back to Norfolk Road. The firefighting forces were in complete disarray. Streets were blocked by flames and live power lines were falling from burning poles.

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