SAN JOSE -- Fierce winds swept a brush fire down the slopes of the Oakland hills Sunday, threatening homes in the residential area that was decimated by a firestorm nine years ago this weekend and capping a busy weekend of hot spots throughout Northern California.
Only hours earlier, a San Jose hillside fire, one of at least five in the city on Sunday, burned 25 acres. It was started when a power line fell into a pine tree. Fire Capt. Mark Mooney said officials feared the gusty wind could spread the lingering hot spots and re-ignite the fire that still smoldered into the late afternoon.
"This is the point where Oakland thought they had it contained," he said, pointing out that the nine-year anniversary of those fires, which killed 25 people, was Saturday. "That's what we are worried about."
Joe Gallo, 68, scraped his hands when he fell while fleeing the flames that destroyed his home but was thankful that he was insured and can stay with his children in San Jose.
"I'm here to tell the story," he said. "I'm alive to build again."
The San Jose fire was possibly sparked by a downed power line, began on top of a hill in eastern San Jose shortly after 1 a.m. and was pushed toward homes by wind gusting to 45 mph. Firefighters put out the blaze but it continued to smolder hours later and officials worried the blaze could restart.
Thirty-six people were evacuated.
Sunday's Oakland fire consumed as much as five acres by 1:30 p.m. and some residents there were concerned after having lived through the destruction of the 1991 Oakland hills fire that destroyed entire neighborhoods. One man began soaking his roof with a garden hose Sunday as dark smoke loomed through eucalyptus leaves in the distance.
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Smoke was visible from miles away, dispersed over the region by the same high winds that uprooted trees in Oakland and Hayward and closed four runways at the San Francisco International Airport.
Emergency crews had to cut a tree to pieces to remove it from the caved in roof of a car in Hayward. A grass fire ignited a hillside near California State University, Hayward, and another grass fire burned about 100 acres near Crockett in the East Bay. A 3,900-acre blaze made its way from Lake County toward Napa County powered by strong winds.
About 1,000 firefighters worked through the weekend on the Lake County blaze, which started Saturday near Middletown. On Sunday, the fire was 50 percent contained with full containment not expected until Tuesday.
Homes were threatened in Lake County, but only four rural structures were reported damaged.
A 300-acre fire burned near some ranches south of El Dorado Hills ignited on Saturday. Fire crews bulldozed a line around the fire near Highway 50, said CDF dispatchers.
Firefighters also contained fires in Amador County off Comanche Road, and in northern El Dorado County near Cool.
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