A brush fire consumed 58 acres in the area of westbound Interstate 580 and Eden Canyon in Castro Valley Monday.
It all started around 5 p.m. with a car fire that quickly spread through the vegetation.
Flames were only feet away from dozens of homes off of Schaefer Ranch Road in neighboring Dublin and families were seen running in and out as they filled their vehicles with their belongings, getting ready to flee.
“I panicked and I kept asking, ‘what can I do to help? What should I pack up?’” said resident Brandon Ta.
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Crews responded quickly from all angles. Many of them had just arrived from the fires up north caused by a series of lighting strikes.
“Some came back this morning, some came back last night, but here they are,” said Battalion Chief Bryan Goff of Cal Fire.
No structures were damaged and residents were able to return after two hours, grateful to see their home intact.
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“We expected we had to sleep out somewhere because the heat is going to be more tomorrow, there’s going to be a heatwave so we were really scared that it could affect our housing,” said evacuee Sangeetha Shanbhogue.
