Oct. 19 is a day seared in Bay Area history. Thirty years ago Tuesday, the Oakland-Berkeley firestorm ignited near the Caldecott Tunnel and ultimately killed 25 people – including two first responders.
The burn scars are long gone and in the place where more than 3,000 homes were once destroyed, stand new homes with spectacular views of the Bay.
The Oakland Fire Department said there’s lessons to be learned from the 1991 fire and building more housing in those fire-prone hills is a recipe for disaster.
“It was like a parking lot, you couldn’t move,” said Gordon Piper, who lost his home in the 1991 fire. “The cars were all the way to the top of the hill.” Piper made it out alive – but 25 others did not.
“People literally had to run for it,” he said.
One of the thousands of homes destroyed was that of Mayor Libby Schaaf’s father.