Fire danger is high in many parts of the East Bay as an October heatwave rolls in. Humidity is low, temperatures are up, and that adds plenty of fire-ready fuel to the mix.
Residents are on alert in the fire-prone East Bay Hills, where a certain species of trees is making the threat even greater.
Caltrans crews have been busy trying to clear the brush and weeds in the hillside along Highway 24 in Oakland, as the expected heatwave inches in, putting folks who live in the fire prone East Bay Hills on edge. The trees that blanket the area couldn't be more flammable: thousands of non-native, oil-laden eucalyptus trees could act like fire torches if ignited.
“It's very dry conditions and wind,” UC Berkeley’s Sal Genito said. “Those things, together with an errant cigarette butt, could cause this to go up like a tinderbox.”
The university owns about 1,000 acres in the hills, Genito said. They and others have been waiting for years for FEMA to release funds to remove the invasive trees, but the money hasn't materialized.
Those who lost homes in the 1991 firestorm know all too well how fire-friendly the eucalyptus are.
“In the firestorm, the eucalyptus trees were sending their flaming seed pods over the top of my car as I was trying to evacuate the community,” long-time resident Gordon Piper said. “I don't want other people to go through what I went through when I lost my home.”
