The Keller Fire in the Oakland Hills had burned 13 acres and was 60% contained as of 6 p.m. on Saturday, according to the Oakland Fire Department.
Saturday evening, evacuation orders were lifted for residents on Campus Drive, but the Oakland Fire Department said around 43 homes on Rifle Lane and Altura Place were still under evacuation orders. In the neighborhood east of Interstate Highway 580, residents returned to their homes escorted by police officers.
Real-time evacuation maps can be viewed here.
A Red Flag warning remained in effect until 5 p.m. Saturday.
Oakland Fire Chief Damon Covington said about 200 firefighters from several Bay Area fire departments were called to back up the Oakland Fire Department after the fire broke out at about 1:30 p.m. on Friday off Interstate Highway 580 and Keller Avenue. Cal Fire assisted with air support.
"Without them, we would be having a very different conversation," Covington said at a press briefing on Saturday morning.
Covington said crews would remain on scene throughout the day to extinguish the remaining fire monitor hot spots and ensure increasing winds did not reignite the flames, which were still burning in some vegetation and tree stumps.
"The elevated temperatures and the heavy winds is what we'll be watching for," Covington said.
At a later press briefing at around 6:00 p.m., Covington provided an update, "things are looking dramatically better, we’ve had crews on the hill all day, they’ve been doing great work."
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Covington explained that investigators are still trying to locate video to determine exactly how this fire started. But they do believe it started along 580, near the Keller exit. Covington said the flames jumped from the freeway to two homes nearby, then up the hill to a grove of eucalyptus trees behind the homes.
Saturday, Covington said crews had been focused on felling trees and putting out hotspots under the eucalyptus canopy.
Covington said the fire department was working to get residents back in their homes by the end of the day, but did not want to send people back in the face of increasing winds, only to have to order them to leave again.
The Keller Fire is happening in an area that's become all too familiar with the threat of wildfire. Saturday marked exactly 33 years since the Oakland Hills fire claimed 25 lives and thousands of homes. That fire happened a few miles away from the Keller Fire is now.
The Keller Fire is also happening close by to where a blaze scorched 22 acres in 2017.
At that time, Oakland resident Chris Heller had just moved into his home on Campus Drive.
"There was lots more brush on the hillside," Heller recalled.
Since then, he explained that the city has started doing annual inspections of homes there for fire safety, making suggestions about how to reduce risk. Heller said that residents have also learned more about how to protect their homes and do that work proactively.
"We’ve done a lot since then to try and push vegetation further down the hill and cut back dead things," Heller said.
Heller noted that compared to 2017 that more crews responded to put the Keller fire out quickly.
"We are very pleased with how Oakland Fire and Cal Fire and all the other folks, Oakland PD, everybody did a great job," Heller said of the response to the Keller Fire.
Oakland's fire chief said the lessons from fires past meant the department and other agencies were already in place because of the high fire risk this week and able to respond quickly.
"We’ve talked about the '91 fire, we talked about the wind and how things can get going really quickly and that’s how we have so many resources on scene," Covington said.
He noted that Oakland Fire crews will continue working Saturday night and into the day Sunday. If things continue going to plan, they're hoping to lift evacuation orders for the remaining residents on Sunday.
Wind speeds were forecast to be between 8-11 mph on Saturday, with gusts up to 20 mph, according to the National Weather Service. The wind, combined with dry conditions, contributed to the Red Flag Warning, which is issued when fire conditions are dangerous.
The University of California, Berkeley said it would be taking precautions related to the Red Flag Warning at its football game on Saturday, including suspending live cannon fire and pyrotechnics. Outdoor barbeques will be banned on campus and other food service will be modified with fire safety in mind, according to the University.
Eleven-year-old Oakland resident Anaya Nero waited with family to be escorted by police back to her home on Saturday night.
"I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed, cause this is just a big scenario, I’ve never been in a fire or anything,” she noted.
Residents expressed relief at how quickly first responders acted to stop this fire and remain hopeful that conditions will stay calm Saturday night.
Two homes were damaged and about a dozen were threatened at the height of the fire. One minor injury was reported.
