Oakland Hills Fire Nearly Engulfs Major Highway

A fire that burned in Oakland, California, saw clouds of smoke rising nearly engulfing a busy freeway on Friday.
The Oakland Fire Department said they have largely contained the blaze which began as a vegetation fire and Keller Avenue at around 1:30 p.m. local time.
Video from the scene, filmed by NBC Bay Area, showed smoke billowing over the freeway as firefighters tackled the blaze. Westbound lanes of I-580 were closed Friday, but have since reopened.
The fire moved up the hillside and forced around 500 residents to be evacuated from the Oakland hills around Mountain Boulevard and Keller Avenue. Two residential homes were also damaged as a result of the fire on Friday.
Michael Hunt, a spokesperson for the fire department, told the Associated Press that one of the homes was significantly burnt, while the second had minor flame damage. Fewer than 10 other homes had smoke and water damage.
Oakland Fire Department Chief Damon Covington told local media that no one has been injured as a result of the blaze. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Newsweek has contacted the Oakland Fire Department for comment via email.
Later on Friday, the Oakland Fire Department said that the fire was around 15 percent contained, having burned through around 13 acres of land. More than 200 fire personnel responded to tackle the fire.
Crews were working on addressing hot spots at the vegetation plot where the fire broke out.
“Incident Commanders are closely monitoring wind patterns and resources,” the department said.
The Oakland Fire Department posted on their most recent social media update: “This fire is not yet under control. 13 acres have burned. Fire crews will be on scene working aggressively to fully extinguish this fire for the next 24 hrs or more, likely through Saturday evening, depending on conditions.
“Thank you to all the responding agencies for supporting us today. Your efforts alongside us so far has saved lives and entire neighborhoods.”
The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for much of the Bay Area of California as dry and windy conditions increased the risk of wildfires spreading. The warning of winds of up around 40 miles per hour will remain in place until Saturday.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) warned residents it may need to proactively shut off power for safety to reduce wildfire risk between Thursday and Saturday.
PG&E turned off power to 17,500 customers in 21 California counties, according to their latest update posted Friday.
“PG&E initiates PSPS when the fire-weather forecast is severe enough that people’s safety, lives, homes and businesses may be in danger of wildfires,” the energy company said in a statement.
“Our overarching goal is to stop catastrophic wildfires by proactively turning off power in targeted areas when extreme weather threatens our electric grid. We recognize that PSPS outages create hardships for our customers and communities. Our sole focus is to keep our customers safe.”