Oakland-Berkeley hills firestorm collection, 1991-1992

On the Sunday morning of October 20, 1991 strong winds re-ignited embers from a wildfire near the Caldecott Tunnel in the Oakland hills that the Oakland Fire Department had put out the day before. Oakland firefighters were on site that Sunday morning, watching for flare-ups, but they were overwhelmed by the rekindled fire, which quickly became a raging firestorm, destroying over 3,000 dwellings and killing 25 people.

The collection, covering the period Oct. 1991-Dec. 1992., includes reports and findings on the firestorm and its aftermath; audio cassette tapes of Oakland Fire and Police Dept. dispatches during the firestorm, and video cassette (VHS) tapes of local television coverage of the firestorm; aerial photographs and remote sensing data (from a joint project of NASA, the U.C. Berkeley Fire Lab and local fire officials); personal narratives and poems by fire victims, and other memorials (including material on the first anniversary of the firestorm); pet rescue materials; magazines and magazine/newsletter articles; and newspaper articles (in three overlapping compilations).