Berkeley hills fire sparks memories

BERKELEY -- Lauren Armstrong spent early Tuesday morning hosing down her roof and making a mental list of what to take if the two- alarm blaze two doors away spread to her own home.

"It was a scary night full of adrenaline for sure," said Armstrong, who lives on Avenida Drive in the Berkeley hills, where a 3:30 a.m. fire caused nearly $1.5 million in damage, fire officials said.

No one was injured.

Residents in the Berkeley and Oakland hills do not take fires lightly, even 15 years after the notorious East Bay hills firestorm that killed 25 people and destroyed nearly 3,000 structures.

"While I was wetting down my roof I was thinking about what I would take," Armstrong said. Jewelry, the computer and photographs were the first things that came to mind, she added.

Neighbors said 100-foot-tall redwood trees burned, showering the heavily wooded neighborhood with sparks.

"The whole sky was full of embers," Armstrong said. "I wanted to save my house and my neighbor's house."

Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief David Orth said the fire at 98 Avenida Drive could have been much worse if it had happened last Friday. That was considered a "Red Flag" day because of the hot and windy conditions. Tuesday's fog dampened the area, making it easier to extinguish the fire, Orth said.

"We were so lucky there was no breeze. It was a dead, still night. If there were a breeze, it would have been a whole other story," Armstrong said.

Orth said the fire department did not order evacuations, butsome people prepared to flee anyway.

"People were pretty scared with all these trees around it (the fire)," Orth said. "When our first company arrived, the whole house was on fire. ... I can imagine that people were preparing."

When Armstrong saw that fire engines had blocked the road, she concocted an alternate escape plan. "I figured I could always use my bicycle."

The fire was controlled in about 30 minutes, but several firefighters spent Tuesday digging out hot spots, which can spark other fires. Police and fire officials do not know what sparked the blaze, but believe it ignited in the kitchen.

It is not believed to be a suspicious fire, Orth said.

The lone occupant was asleep when the fire broke out. He had been remodeling the three-story home, Orth said.

The early-morning blaze is the first major fire since late June when the Berkeley City Council voted to use $250,000 from one-time property transfer tax and revenue to eliminate the city's past rotating staff reductions, or so-called "brownouts," at fire stations throughout the high fire season.

Staff writer Hanna Tamrat contributed to this report.

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