Oakland Hills Fire - October 1991

On October 20, 1991, a small grass fire in the Oakland, California hills north of the Caldecott Tunnel erupted into the worst residential fire in California history.
This archival video produced by PG&E (not EBMUD) provides an account of the devastation and response.
Driven by unseasonably hot winds amid drought conditions, the blaze consumed entire neighborhoods in the Oakland hills with alarming speed. EBMUD pumping plants lost power as the fire spread, putting tremendous stress on ridgetop water supplies needed to fight the firestorm. An all-hands effort eventually helped extinguish the blaze, but not before 25 people died, 150 were injured, and 3,354 single-family homes and 456 apartments were destroyed. More than 1,600 acres burned at a cost of $1.5 billion.
As the area recovered and residents rebuilt, EBMUD led the formation of the Hills Emergency Forum, a permanent organization of East Bay agencies created to learn from and train for such emergencies and to reduce fire hazards. EBMUD also adopted a vegetation management program, cleared 1.5 miles of fuel breaks in the East Bay hills, installed a new emergency communications station and created its own Office of Emergency Preparedness.