Oakland Fire
The fire tossed embers from the burning houses and vegetation into the air as it went. These embers were swept away by the torrid winds only to float back to earth to start the blaze in new locations.
Half an hour later, these embers enabled the fire to jump across both Highway 24, an eight-lane freeway, and Highway 13, a four-lane freeway, eventually igniting hundreds of houses in the Forest Park neighborhood on the northwest edge of the Montclair district and in the upper Rockridge Neighborhood. The fire eventually touched the edge of Piedmont burning some municipal property, but no buildings or houses.
The hot, dry northeasterly winds, dubbed by the media at this time as "Diablo winds," periodically occur during the early fall season, the equivalent in Southern California are called the "Santa Ana Winds", and have been the cause of numerous devastating fires.
The fire began generating its own wind, the defining characteristic of a firestorm. All of these combined to help spread the fire, tossing embers in all directions.
By mid-afternoon, the wind had slowed and shifted to the west, driving the fire to the southeast. At about 9 pm, the wind abruptly stopped, giving firefighters a chance to contain the fire.
Firefighting response and difficulties
Remains of houses destroyed by the fire
Assistance from firefighting agencies as far north as the Oregon state line, as far south as Bakersfield and as far east as the Nevada State Line were quickly mobilized and sent to the fire zone.
It incorporated actual Oakland fire footage as well as audio from radio transmissions made by the fire crews on the scene.
The book "Almost Home: America's Love-Hate Relationship with Community" contained a chapter of critical assessment of the social aftermath of the fire. It highlighted how the selfish and individualistic desires by some of the victims of the fire overwhelmed any preliminary voice of community togetherness, including fraudulent and greedy practices towards charity and insurance claims.
The fire is a theme in author Maxine Hong Kingston's novel The Fifth Book of Peace.
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