RAW VIDEO: Oakland Hills Firestorm

My home was two streets above the Parkwoods, Charing Cross road. It burned about 20 minutes into the fire which was prior to this video. I was home at the time and left as my house was on fire. The escape route was very difficult leading to the deaths of neighbors as well as Sheriff officer, Grabinsky, who promoted our evacuation. All these years later it still lives with me, you never shake something like this.

Everyone who helped during this deserves a medal.

Thank you KTVU for posting this raw video without intrusive commentary.

I was in the Navy stationed aboard the USS Texas in Alameda. My Captain allowed five of us to go and fight the fires. We hung off the back of a hook and ladder truck until we were in the middle of it. I helped evacuate homeowners who would not leave and I carried some out kicking and screaming. Minutes later their houses were gone. Absolute devastation. The heat, that wind and the flying cinders created a surreal environment. I still think about that night when I pass through the Caldecott Tunnel.

The fire began on a Sunday morning. At the Berkely Newman Center church the closing song was "Send down the Fire of your Justice." What they did not know was that some who were at mass singing that song had homes already burning.

I remember this when I was 5. My school burned down and we were evacuated from our house just below skyline. To this day explosions and fires scare me more than guns or being assaulted. Once you’ve faced this, humanity becomes kind of a write off.

i saw the smaller fire the day before and i got very scared and told my friends that the whole mountain could go up in flames so easily. the next morning, i woke to those winds and laid there waiting for the sound of the firetrucks. i didn't have to wait long. then i left to go to sta rosa for the day and got half way down Grizzly Peak and rounded the bend to see hundred foot high flames moving towards me at 60 mph. i flipped a uee and a guy dumped his bicycle and jumped on my hood and i floored it to get out of there. we ended up being evacuated twice as the fire progressed.

My grandfather lived in a penthouse unit in the Parkwood Apartments. He and his new wife were traveling in Europe and lost everything. Well, almost everything. He had parked his big boat of a Cadillac in one of the subterranean parking lots. He picked the corner spot, half surrounded in cinder blocks. When the workers were clearing the rubble from that building, they found my grandfather’s car relatively unscathed! After a little TLC it was up and running again!

Probably the best video evidence of firestorm vortices imbedded in what was probably a pyrocumulus cloud. Downslope winds were very strong that day, but swirling embers and things spontaneously bursting into flame. Different beast.

I was 12 y.o and me and my friend was running down when I heard a lady yell help....we turned an found her and the whole back part of her house was burning but she wouldn't leave w/o her dam cats....so we grabbed all 4 of them and we got her out right b4 her house fell....she kept in touch with us for awhile till she passed in 08

Referencing time, just 2 yrs before this the bay was struck by one of the worse earthquakes and people were rebuilding homes, freeways, and infrastructure. Just when we were getting back to regular life, this fire breaks it. It was quite a time for us.

I would start the investigation with the dude wearing the "Backdraft" t-shirt.

I will never forget that girl in the white car dragging her feet. It was on the news.

Geeze, these firefighters are amazing warriors and need to be saluted and celebrated for such bravery!!!!!

People driving through debris thats on fire while a Bushfire roars behind them must have felt scared as heck.

I was 13, living in Monterey at the time. We were watching the 49er game. John Madden pointed out that there was a bunch of smoke coming from the Berkeley hills. They showed it on TV as the smoke was just starting to rise to the sky. Little did we know it would later turn out to be a massive fire like this.

I live in Oakland Hills.. fire didn't reach my area but ashes covered my yard and smell was unbelievable. After it was over we drove along highway 13 and for miles all the way to Berkeley there were nothing but chimneys

My God Mother lived in Oakland during this time. I remember being afraid to go to sleep because I thought the fires would reach all the way down to where she lived. Saw power transformers explode one by one through the night. I still have ash that fell from the sky that day in a bag. Don’t know why I saved it to this day. That fire was tragic.

At its peak the fire was destroying a home every 11 seconds. Terrifying, simply terrifying.

2:10 wind so strong a firehose turns into a sprinkler.