F I R S TP R E V558NEXTLAST

Wildfire in the Sierras
While driving up to Lake Tahoe and Reno over the Memorial Day weekend I came upon this wildfire in the Sierras. While most people focus on earthquakes in California, wildfires actually do more damage and cost more lives than earthquakes. Every year an average of 172,000 acres of California forests are destroyed. In 1991 the Oakland-Berkeley Hills Fire became the country's worst fire involving loss of life and property since the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. Fed by winds of 65 mph the fire killed 25 people, injured 150 more, and destroyed over 2,800 homes, causing $1.5 billion in damage.

That day I was attending a 49ers/Lions football game in Candlestick Park. Throughout the game public address announcements keep calling away policemen, firemen, emergency crews, and medical personnel, until by the end of the game the stadium was nearly empty while the enormous, dark smoke cloud passed overhead. I remember a charred scrap from some unlucky homeowner's recipe book floating down and landing in my lap. It had been carried through the air and across the Bay from the fire, twenty miles away.
[ 1991 BERKELEY FIRE LOCATION K-12 ]