Fire Threatens About 50 Homes in Oakland Hills

Updated 8 p.m.

Residents evacuated from the Oakland Hills were allowed to return home later Tuesday after firefighters got the upper hand of a brush fire that ignited shortly after noon.

The Edwards Fire burning north of Interstate 580 in the Oakland hills burned some 22 acres and was about 60 percent contained, according to Cal Fire. The forward progress of the fire has been stopped.

Alejo Santa Cruz, who lives on one of the evacuated streets just below where the fire burned, said he rushed back home as soon as he started getting text messages from coworkers about the fire.

Like a lot of other residents, Santa Cruz said he ignored official advice to stay away because he wanted to be close by in order to grab valuables if police gave a limited window of time for people to re-enter their homes.

But within hours, firefighters had the fire under control.

Once the evacuation order was lifted, Santa Cruz drove to the house he moved into two months ago and found it untouched.

He hiked up the hillside to see how close the fire came to another home and remarked on the scorched earth behind his housing complex.

“Look at the side of the hill right there. It’s like one big piece of charcoal.”

Santa Cruz also hiked to the top of the property to see how close the fire came to the houses -- flames reached within 30 feet of one home still under construction.

“That was incredibly close!” Santa Cruz said.

As he walked through the neighborhood, he thanked every firefighter he encountered.

“This response seemed to be immediate — instant.  And how they got those choppers — it’s impressive how they got them here in no time,” Santa Cruz said.

Oakland Police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said it's unknown how many people were evacuated, but officers knocked on more than 100 doors.

Watson said no one was hurt, and no structures were damaged.

Updated 3 p.m.

Darin White, interim fire chief of the Oakland Fire Department, said the department had deployed 80 firefighters. An additional 50 to 60 firefighters from Cal Fire and other agencies aided in the effort.

White said the quick response to the blaze would not have been possible without the aid of aircraft that dropped fire retardant on the blaze. Firefighters will be at the site for several days to make sure there are no hot spots that could reignite.

Residents of the Oakland hills north of Interstate Highway 580 and Edwards Drive were evacuated this afternoon because of the four-alarm grass fire, police and fire officials said.

Shortly after 1 p.m., police said they were evacuating the streets of Bayview Drive, Skyview Drive, Ridgemont Drive and Viewcrest Drive and houses in the 13650 block of Campus Drive.

Police were asking people to avoid the area.

About 50 homes were threatened by the fire, Cal Fire officials said.

The officials said as of about 1 p.m. that the fire had burned 20 acres. It was spreading at a moderate rate.

The fire was first reported at 12:13 p.m. near Mountain Boulevard and Edwards Avenue.

When fire officials reported the fire on Twitter, they said it was spreading rapidly on a steep hill.

"The whole hillside is a wall of flame going basically up the hill toward, it looks like Merritt College or whatever homes are up there,” Alameda resident Andi Duncan told KQED after she drove past the blaze.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning today through Wednesday afternoon for the East Bay hills because of dry weather conditions that pose a high risk of wildfires.

The Oakland Police Department sent out the following email regarding the fire:

The Oakland Fire Department and Oakland Police Department are working together to evacuate residences in the area on the northside of the 580 freeway and Edwards Avenue. The following streets are being evacuated, Bayview, Skyview, and houses along Campus drive in the 13650 block. Additional streets include Bohansen Road, Ridgemont, and Viewcrest. Residents are being evacuated and please avoid the area.

Bay City News and KQED's Mina Kim, Julie Small and Don Clyde contributed to this report.