Oakland Hills fire

The Event One of the most destructive urban fires in American history

Date October 19-20, 1991

Place Oakland-Berkeley Hills, California

The fire was one of a series of 1990’s events that demonstrated the vulnerability of California residents to natural disasters—in this case, an inadequately suppressed grassland fire, which reignited the following day and tore through affluent residential neighborhoods, resulting in destruction, death, and injury.

In 1991, Northern California was suffering from five years of drought, which meant that the Oakland-Berkeley Hills were covered with dried vegetation and the fire risk was extremely high. This was a region that had experienced previous wildfires, the most extensive conflagration in 1923 and a smaller one in 1970. However, despite these earlier events, fire-resistant building and landscaping practices still had not been fully implemented in the neighborhoods. Also, in the years since 1970, residential development had moved higher into the hills, creating increased urban-grassland interface areas and escalating challenges for fire-control strategies.

On October 19, 1991, emergency crews suppressed a small brush fire in the Oakland-Berkeley Hills and left the scene. Unfortunately, windy conditions the following morning fanned the embers, and the increasing gusts drove the flames into the adjacent residential neighborhoods. Firefighting services were rapidly mobilized, ultimately deploying approximately fifteen hundred individuals. It was soon apparent, however, that the wildfire was too fast and hot to be controlled and that local residents needed to be evacuated quickly. The police and other emergency-response teams moved into action, but in most locations people had little or no warning before they had to leave their homes, attempting to flee with family members, pets, and limited possessions. Some residents, disoriented by smoke, struggling to help others, or with no available path to safety, never made it out of their community and perished in the fire. Most people managed to escape the blaze, but many of them lost their pet companions, their homes, and all their possessions.

The End of the Day

By evening on October 20, the winds lessened and the fire burnt at a reduced ferocity, no longer spreading rapidly. It was completely suppressed on its third day. The final damage tally was not calculated until weeks later, but the extensive wildfire had destroyed approximately 1,600 residential acres, including roughly 3,800 homes and apartment units. Twenty-five people were killed in the blaze (including two emergency workers), another 227 individuals required medical treatment, mostly for smoke-related injuries, and thousands were left homeless.

Long-Term Effects

In the coming months, people dealt with grief and the psychological challenges of coping with a disaster of such magnitude. By the end of November, approximately 3,700 individuals had accessed counseling and mental health services through the American Red Cross. Presumably, many more people obtained mental health assistance on their own. Emotional difficulties are a common outcome of a natural disaster. In the case of this fire, these challenges also contributed to the logistical and financial difficulties experienced by the Oakland-Berkeley population after the catastrophe, including finding new accommodations, dealing with insurance paperwork, replacing necessary items, and returning to work, educational pursuits, or other activities.

The unique geographic and cultural context of the Oakland-Berkeley Hills also resulted in some distinctive reactions by residents to the disaster. The area is located on the outskirts of San Francisco, an eclectic American city, highly supportive of the arts and diversity in general. The neighborhood population is middle class to upper class, fairly well educated, and numbers high proportions of academics, writers, and artists, many of whom work or attend the University of California, Berkeley. In the years following the fire, people wanted to memorialize the event in a manner that reflected the unique character of the residents and paid tribute to their losses. Given this context, it was not surprising that a number of literary and visual remembrances were published or displayed in local galleries. In addition, an official memorial was created by the city, which featured tiles painted by local residents.

Impact

The fire had a major impact on many aspects of urban life in the Oakland-Berkeley area and California in general. The fatalities, injuries, and losses of pets and possessions affected individual families and neighborhoods. The rapidity with which the fire moved across the residential district resulted in improvements in many areas of emergency response and in neighborhood strategies to protect homes and key transportation links, such as the reduction of flammable vegetation in selected zones.

Bibliography

Adler, Patricia, et al., eds. Fire in the Hills: A Collective Remembrance. Berkeley, Calif.: Patricia Adler, 1992. A poignant recollection through words and photographs of the Oakland Hills fire by residents, rescue workers, authors, and artists.

Beebe, Grant S., and Philip N. Omi. “Wildland Burning: The Perception of Risk.” Journal of Forestry 91, no. 9 (1993): 19-24. A consideration of fire-control policies, including public awareness of residential protective strategies and the effects of media reporting about the Oakland Hills fire.

Hoffman, Susanna M. “The Monster and the Mother: The Symbolism of Disaster.” In Catastrophe and Culture: The Anthropology of Disaster, edited by Susanna M. Hoffman and Anthony Oliver-Smith. Santa Fe, N.Mex.: School of American Research Press, 2002. A consideration of the Oakland Hills fire’s effects on the community by an anthropologist who lost her home, two pets, and all of her possessions.

Oliver-Smith, Anthony. “Anthropological Research on Hazards and Disasters.” Annual Review of Anthropology 25 (1996): 303-328. A review of disaster research, with brief reference to the Oakland Hills fire and some broader themes for understanding its context.

Shusterman, Dennis, Jerold Z. Kaplan, and Carla Canabarro. “Immediate Health Effects of an Urban Wildfire.” Western Journal of Medicine 158 (1993): 133-138. An examination of the effects of the Oakland Hills fire on human health, documented by coroner and hospital records.