Fires burning in Oakland Hills, Riverside County amid dangerous, dry winds

An aircraft drops red retardant on a fire as trucks on the ground hose down buildings and brush.

Published Oct. 18, 2024 Updated Oct. 19, 2024 9:17 PM PT

Firefighters across the state were battling blazes Saturday in Oakland, Jurupa Valley, San Gabriel Canyon and Solano County amid a dangerous weekend of dry, gusty winds.

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 as large areas 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. It was 60% contained as of Saturday night. Two homes were damaged, fire officials reported.

Roughly 60 to 80 firefighters remained on scene Saturday, dousing hotspots, removing dead and dying trees at risk of toppling 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 under evacuation orders Friday, which were partially lifted Friday night. Officials hoped to repopulate the remaining areas late Saturday, Hunt said.

In Riverside County, crews were battling a 17-acre fire burning through heavy vegetation on the Santa Ana River bottom in Jurupa Valley. Firefighters managed to reach 40% containment by 8 p.m. Friday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

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.

The windy conditions helped fuel 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 22% contained as of Saturday night but continued to burn through timber and brush.

“The Shasta-Trinity National Forest in this particular area is extremely steep and nasty rugged terrain,” said public information officer Marc Peebles. “That’s one of the reasons that containment has been slow to grow over the last few days.”

U.S. Forest Service investigators have determined the fire to be human caused but have not disclosed the circumstances.

In Solano County, thousands of people were without power as firefighters battled the 869-acre Hay fire in Vacaville. That fire was 70% contained as of late Friday, according to Cal Fire.

The fires come as a stretch of potentially hazardous weather spanned much of California, with strong winds and red-flag conditions.

From Redding to Riverside, forecasters were 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 areas vulnerable to wildfire. In Southern California, the conditions are creating 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.”

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, 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.

Jon Goldberg, who lives a few streets above the fire, was working at his desk Friday when a barbecue-like smell drifted in through his open window.

“I was looking out the window and started to see some tufts of smoke and it got really dry and warm,” he said. “There’s been tons of helicopters coming in to drop fire retardant and some that cause the whole house to rattle when they go overhead.”

Smoke rises in the distance behind homes

Goldberg said he packed up some of his most valuable possessions — electronics, passports, wedding rings and clothes — in anticipation of a potential evacuation.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao shared a video on X thanking firefighters and reminding residents of the city’s wildfire risk.

“Please sign up for AC [Alameda County] alerts; please have a plan for escape routes. If you don’t have a plan, please create one,” Thao said. “You need to communicate with your children if you have children; you need to create a plan for your pets.”

The Keller fire ignited a day before the 33-year anniversary of the Oakland Hills fire that killed 25 people and destroyed nearly 3,000 homes near the area that burned Friday.

“As you know, 33 years ago, almost to the day, the results were very different,” Oakland Fire Chief Damon Covington said at a news conference. “So we have to give kudos to the teams on the ground who did an excellent job of stopping the progress of this fire.”

Southern California Edison, which provides power to about 15 million people in the Southland, had cut power for more than 8,000 customers across Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Inyo counties as of Saturday morning “due to heightened wildfire risk,” the company reported. Many of the shutoffs were located across the Santa Monica Mountains, San Bernardino County’s mountain communities and around Riverside, SCE’s outage map showed.

By Saturday afternoon, that number had decreased to 3,462 customers without power in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Inyo counties.

The utility said it was considering power shutoffs for more than 92,000 customers across six counties, including Orange and Riverside, and additional locations in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

The state’s big three investor-owned utilities, PG&E, SCE and San Diego Gas & Electric, have adopted a strategy in the last decade of de-energizing their lines where their equipment is at risk of malfunctioning during powerful winds and sparking a fire. Many of California’s deadliest and most destructive fires were started by utility equipment.

Winds across the state began to pick up late Thursday as a low-pressure system moved down from the Pacific Northwest. In Northern California, the National Weather Service recorded gusts hitting 63 mph at Mt. St. Helena and 48 mph at Mt. Diablo. The high winds continued into Saturday morning, when gusts of up to 79 mph were recorded at Mt. St. Helena.

Winds in Orange County near Trabuco Canyon prompted several 911 calls Friday as the sky filled with what appeared to be smoke. Officials were unable to locate a fire and said the wind was probably just blowing dust and ash from the Airport fire burn area.

Much of the Bay Area and Sacramento Valley remained under a red-flag warning through Saturday evening, with wind gusts up to 65 mph expected along some of the highest peaks and sustained winds up to 35 mph.

The Santa Ana pattern of winds was expected to create red-flag conditions across the mountains and valleys in Los Angeles and Ventura counties through Saturday, the weather service warned.

Valleys and mountains in San Bernardino and Riverside counties were also under a red-flag warning through Saturday.

In Orange County, the Santa Ana Mountains are facing windy conditions, but forecasters said the recent Airport fire eliminated much of the available brush, making the area less ripe for wildfire.

Farther east, parts of southwest California aren’t necessarily facing those critical fire conditions, but gusty winds — up to 60 mph — are still expected through Saturday. A wind advisory for the Mojave Desert, the Coachella Valley and other inland areas warned that tree limbs could fall, unplanned power outages were possible, and driving could be difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles.

The high pressure system causing the dry, gusty conditions is expected to weaken Saturday night into Sunday, forecasters said.