A set of high voltage electrical lines, supported on steel towers,
crosses over the East Bay Hills and drops down to the Pacific Gas and
Electric substation that is located in the Y of the freeway interchange,
next to Lake Temescal. At 1315 hours, personnel staffing Oakland’s
Command Post Vehicle, which was parked near the substation, were
shocked to see the electrical lines suddenly light-up and shower the
hillside in front of them with sparks. As circuit breakers popped in the
substation, a hasty decision was made to retreat the Command Post a half
mile west on Highway 24 to the Broadway BART Station. This facility,
which is located in the median area of the freeway, became the Command
Post for the remainder of the incident.
The arcing of the power lines is believed to have been caused by
ionization of the air where the high voltage lines passed through the
thermal column created by the fire. The arcing caused the lines to
“light-up” all the way over the hills. The shower of sparks ignited several
new grass fires on the south side of Temescal Canyon, which soon merged
with the main body of fire.
The arcing followed the electrical lines all the way to a PG & E
substation in Moraga, and two significant new outbreaks were immediately
observed by the CDF spotter aircraft on the east side of the hills. The new
fires were within two miles of the main fire and created the risk of two
additional fire fronts coming over the hills into Oakland. Four helicopters
that had been working on the main fire were immediately diverted to the
new outbreaks, with the hope that they could be controlled before they
could climb the hills and carry over the ridge to the Oakland side.
ConFire also received numerous reports on the new outbreaks and
began dispatching ground resources to the reported locations. One of
these fires, known as the Dolores fire, eventually required 49 ground units
and was not controlled until the evening hours, after burning 160 acres.
Some of the units that were sent to the Dolores Fire responded directly
from the Franklin Canyon fire as it was brought under control. The other
fire, titled the Sunset fire, burned 50 acres and one barn, but was
controlled within four hours by nine units.
The new outbreaks delayed the arrival of assistance at the East Bay
Hills fire, because Contra Costa resources that were still en route had to
be diverted and additional resources had to be requested from the
statewide mutual aid system to cover Contra Costa County. Some of the
units worked on two or more of the major incidents in succession.
Next » Strategy - Continuing Battle on Multiple Fronts
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