Oakland Hills neighbors alerted each other through group chats, used hoses to put out fires as area burned

Around 1:45 p.m. Friday, Benjamin Walker awoke to the sound of firefighters in the backyard of his Sanford Street home. 

He jumped out of bed, looked outside and saw the oak tree on the fence line of his yard burning.

“Holy shit!” he said aloud.

Still in a post-nap daze, he scrambled to figure out what to do next.

“I’m still waking up. I get my stuff together and get out there,” he told Oakland North Saturday. “The firefighters tell me to turn on my hose. So I started putting out little fires. But basically, at that point, most of this area was already burnt.”

Shortly before Walker woke up, Pamela Jordan who lives two doors down, noticed that the sky had suddenly grown dark. When she looked outside, she saw neighbors in the street spraying hoses, and arching flames behind her house.

“We called 911 but couldn’t get through,” Jordan said.

While they waited for help, residents on  Keller Avenue, Mountain Boulevard, Sanford and surrounding streets ran door to door alerting one another and helping each other evacuate, an hour before Alameda County issued an official evacuation order for the area. 

After a harrowing two days, most residents were back in their homes Sunday night, as Cal Fire reported the blaze 85% contained. But by that time, it already had burned 15 acres in the Oakland Hills, destroyed two homes, displaced more than 500 residents for two days and threatened many other structures.

At a briefing Sunday morning, the Oakland Fire Department said 50 firefighters were still on the scene addressing hotspots. The remaining 43 residents on Campus Drive who had been kept at bay, were expected to be allowed back Sunday evening.

Update 19) The Keller Fire operation has been successful and the remaining evacuation orders in this area will be FULLY lifted as of 8:00PM Sunday evening. All residents will be allowed restored access to the area and to their homes.

— Oakland Fire Department (CA) (@OaklandFireCA) October 21, 2024

The Keller Fire, as it is being called because of its proximity to Keller Avenue, started 33 years almost to the day of the deadly Tunnel Fire, which swept through the Oakland Hills on Oct. 19 and 20, 1991. In the Tunnel Fire, 25 people died, 1,520 acres burned and more than 3,000 homes were destroyed.

The conditions for the Keller Fire were eerily similar, which strong winds stirring dried grass, leaves and trees. As in 1991, flames jumped from the freeway to homes and into eucalyptus trees, Oakland Fire Chief Damon Covington said Saturday. But this time, he added, the Fire Department was more prepared and immediately had assistance from Cal Fire and nearby departments.

“We had a little bit more preparation because we’ve learned from those fires that we’ve had  throughout the last several years, as well as the 1991 fire, of the level of preparation that’s required,” he said.  

For residents, staying connected helped. Todd and Tina Stimpson, who also live on Sanford Street, a block east of the fire, said neighbors communicated via group chat to alert one another. They filled buckets with water and hosed down each other’s homes.

Tina Stimpson noticed the fire as she drove home from downtown Oakland, an uneasy feeling turning to alarm as she climbed the hill.

“We could see the fire from the freeway on our way back and thought it was maybe at the 580/13 interchange area,” she said. “But as we got closer, we saw it was closer to our house. As we pulled off the freeway at Keller, we rolled down our window and you could feel the heat. It was that hot.”

When she pulled onto Sanford, she saw neighbors in action on the street. She and Todd joined them.

“We have a really good neighborhood community where we watch out for everybody,” Tina Stimpson said.

Residents throughout Oakland tried to lend support. Monica Albakari, who lives a few miles east of the fire, went into the hills with her husband, Lee, to check on a longtime friend whom they were unable to reach by phone. They arrived at their friend’s home, a gift bag in hand, to find it severely damaged. Their friend owns a small business in San Leandro, and Albakari said many people will want to help her.

“She does a lot of work in the community, so I know she’s going to get a lot of support,” she said.

On Saturday, residents had queued up beyond the police roadblocks, waiting for the green light to return home.

One family was told they’d be let back in at 5 p.m. But they weren’t sure if they’d be allowed back home for good, or only to retrieve some things, because it wasn’t clear if their home was in the red zone or just beyond. They spent Friday night sleeping in the car. They waited to hear if they would be able to spend Saturday night in their own beds.

(Top photo contributed by  Kaia Stimpson)

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UPDATE: Evacuation lifted for some after wildfire burns two homes, threatens others in Oakland Hills