Firefighters across the state were battling blazes in Oakland, Jurupa Valley, San Gabriel Canyon and Solano County in an ominous start to a dangerous weekend of dry, gusty winds.
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The Keller fire broke out in the Oakland Hills near Mountain Boulevard and Keller Avenue on Friday afternoon and quickly grew to 15 acres, burning through a swath of eucalyptus trees toward hillside homes. The blaze erupted at a time when large swaths of the state, including much of the Bay Area, remained under a red-flag warning stemming from low humidity and high winds.
More than 200 fire personnel responded and halted the fire’s forward advance by 4 p.m. It was 50% contained as of Saturday morning. Two homes were damaged, fire officials reported.
Fire crews were challenged overnight by wind gusts of up to 20 mph and poor relative humidity recovery, with values hovering around 10% through midnight, said Rick Canepa, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey.
Roughly 60 to 80 firefighters remained onscene Saturday putting water on hotspots, taking down dead and dying trees at risk of toppling over and raking the ground to create a more robust fire line to contain the perimeter, said Michael Hunt, spokesperson for the Oakland Fire Department.
“The wind could get up to 40 mph or more at any point so there are still a lot of people here to try to mitigate the threat,” he said. “The idea of a rekindle is definitely top of mind.”
About 500 homes were placed under evacuation orders, which were partially lifted Friday night. Officials hoped to repopulate the remaining areas later Saturday, Hunt said.
In Riverside County, crews were battling a 17-acre fire that started just after 4 p.m. and was charring through heavy vegetation on the Santa Ana River bottom in Jurupa Valley. Firefighters managed to get a handle on the blaze and reach 40% containment by 8 p.m., according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Meanwhile, a smaller fire burned in the hills off Colima Road in Hacienda Heights in Los Angeles County, but was quickly stopped by firefighters.
In the San Gabriel Canyon, high winds reignited the smoldering Bridge fire, prompting the closure of San Gabriel Canyon Road, according to CalFire. The devastating blaze had reached 99% containment earlier this month after scorching 55,000 acres in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, according to Cal Fire.
The windy conditions also helped fuel the growth of the 4,385-acre Shoe fire in Northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The fire, which prompted evacuation orders for about 12 homes when it started Oct. 9, was 8% contained as it continued to burn through timber and large brush, growing by about 200 acres overnight.
“The Shasta-Trinity National Forest in this particular area is extremely steep and nasty rugged terrain,” said Marc Peebles, a public information officer for the fire. “That’s one of the reasons that containment has been slow to grow over the last few days.” Officials were hoping to report improved numbers by Saturday evening, he added.
U.S. Forest Service investigators have determined the fire to be human caused but have not disclosed the exact circumstances.
And up in Solano County, thousands of people were without power as firefighters battled the 869-acre Hay fire in Vacaville. That fire was 70% contained by 7 p.m., according to Cal Fire.
The fires come as a stretch of potentially hazardous weather is spanning much of California through the weekend, with strong winds, red-flag conditions and the risk of additional power shutoffs — already in place for thousands — to avoid sparking more wildfires.
From Redding to Riverside, forecasters are warning of a strong offshore flow through at least Saturday, with gusts as high as 40 and 50 mph drying out huge swaths of California and triggering utility shutoffs in the most vulnerable areas. In Southern California, the conditions are creating the Santa Ana winds — the first of the season — often the culprit for some of the region’s most dangerous late-season fires.
According to a red-flag warning issued for Southern California, “if fire ignition occurs, conditions are favorable for rapid fire spread and extreme fire behavior which would threaten life and property.”
By Friday evening, more than 27,000 electricity customers across the state were experiencing shutoffs.
In Northern and Central California, Pacific Gas & Electric initiated public safety power shutoffs Thursday afternoon, which expanded in scope through Friday evening. On Friday, about 17,500 customers in 21 counties had been cut off, with the shutoffs possibly lasting through Saturday, according to PG&E’s latest update. The shutoffs were initiated across the northern Sacramento Valley, along the inland Bay Area and down into Santa Barbara County, the utility’s outage map showed.
In Oakland, hundreds of customers affected by the Keller fire lost power.
