Natural Disasters

Natural Disasters

African Americans Affected by the East Bay Hills Fire Collection

The African Americans Affected by the East Bay Hills Fire Collection was an oral history project undertaken by the African American Museum & Library at Oakland. The African Americans Affected by the East Bay Hills Fire Collection consists of 10 interviews conducted from 1993 to 1995 with African Americans who were living in the East Bay during the Oakland hills firestorm of October 1991. View online items Dates: 1993-1995   Collection number: MS184   Creator: African American Museum & Library at Oakland   Creator: Atkinson, Nicole C.   Collection Size: .75 linear feet (1 box)   Guide to the African Americans Affected by the East Bay Hills Fire Oral History Collection Available at the African American Museum & Library at Oakland (AAMLO) We encourage researchers to contact AAMLO before visiting so that we can be prepared to assist you. Please call 510-637-2000 or email aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org to arrange an appointment or inquire about access.

Letters regarding the San Francisco earthquake and fire, 1906

Letters from residents of the San Francisco east bay written following the San Francisco earthquake and fire on April 18, 1906, relating their experiences of the earthquake and its aftermath, work in relief efforts, damage to buildings, and the smoky sky over San Francisco. (OHC MSS EARTHQUAKE) 1 folder, .02 linear feet. Go here for a more detailed description of this collection's contents.  Available at Oakland History Center, Main Library.  

Loma Prieta Earthquake remembrance collection, 1989-1990

Following the Loma Prieta Earthquake of October 17, 1989, the Oakland Public Library undertook a project to collect memories of the earthquake from the local community. A one-page form with the title “October 17, 1989 Earthquake: Where Were You?” was prepared and distributed throughout the library system. Library visitors recorded their memories on the form, often completely filling both sides of the form with their reminiscences. Some library visitors took the forms home, attached extensive narratives and mailed them back to the library. 175 responses were received, mostly between late October 1989 and June 1990, and they are preserved in this collection.  (OHC COLL 2016-10) 5 folders in box (.21 linear feet) Go here for a more detailed list of this collection's contents.  Available at Oakland History Center, Main Library.  

Oakland-Berkeley hills firestorm : Pearman collection 1991-1997

This collection is the work of Donald V. Pearman, an Oakland hills resident who saved his home in the 1991 Oakland-Berkeley hills firestorm with the aid of a garden hose. The experience prompted Pearman to launch an extensive research project on the fire. He conducted interviews of firefighters and homeowners, took photographs, gathered data and assembled reports and studies from many sources.   (OHC COLL 2018-4) 10 boxes (6.25 linear feet) Go here for a more detailed list of this collection's contents.  Available at Oakland History Center, Main Library.  

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).   (OHC COLL 2018-3) 26 boxes (13.8 linear feet) Go here for a more detailed list of this collection's contents.  Available at Oakland History Center, Main Library.  

Oakland-Berkeley hills firestorm litigation : depositions and other material related to lawsuits concerning the Parkwoods Apartments, 1994

The owners of the Parkwoods Apartments were sued after the apartment complex was destroyed in the 1991 Oakland-Berkeley hills firestorm. The cases, Victor May, et al., vs. Paine Webber Properties, and David William Abilgaard, et al., vs. Paine-Webber Properties, were heard in the Alameda County Superior Court. This collection includes depositions (some with accompanying exhibits) background materials about the Parkwoods Apartments (primarily copies of original maps used in the planning and construction of the Parkwoods Apartments, and other assorted materials). (OHC COLL 2018-6) 2 boxes (1.7 linear feet) Go here for a more detailed list of this collection's contents.  Available at Oakland History Center, Main Library.  

Recollections : together with the geneology of the Mack Family from Inverness, Scotland, about 1665 and the letters of George Corydon Mack while crossing the plains in 1863 / 1929 / by Oscar Eugene Mack

Recollections of Oscar Eugene Mack, typed and bound, with newspaper clippings, photographs, and other ephemera pasted in. The recollections cover most of Mack's life, from his early childhood in Illinois, his voyage to San Francisco on the steamers Costa Rica and Sacramento and across the Isthmus of Panama, ranch life near Maine Prairie, and Westminster, California, his professional life, and major life events, including his marriage, and the birth of his children, to important world and local events. The inner workings of his many jobs are described in detail, including his time teaching, work in the subscription department of A. L. Bancroft & Co., time spent in the auditing and express money order departments of Wells Fargo & Co., work as an auditor with J.C. Nolan & Co., and his long career as a shoe salesman, selling to the trade. Includes a brief history of the Mack family in the United States, a typed transcript of his father's overland journal, and sixteen appendixes discussing a range of subjects, including, his guiding principles, human relations, Christianity, production and consumption, travels, and arithmetic. Of particular note are is his descriptions of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire and the damage to buildings and infrastructure in Oakland, and the flora and fauna surrounding every community in which he lived. (OHC MSS MACK) [iv], 651pages : photographs ; 28cm Go here for a more detailed list of this collection's contents.  Available at Oakland History Center, Main Library.  

A-Z Collections Index