University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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DEVIL WINDS s unday October 20, 1991 came on mean from the start. Fiery tiot Santa Ana style devil winds whipped down from the northeast at 50 mph. The winds emptied their heated bluster upon the ridge of hills that rises augustly before the Pacific to gourd the edge of the Eostbay. Here, with o breath-taking view of the bay sprawled below, generations of families had crafted mansions and cottages amid on oasis of fragrant eucalyptus trees and gurgling creeks. The crime and traffic of the urban grit were just minutes below, but seemed on entire ocean away in the serene splendor of quiet, monied neighborhoods in the Berkeley Hills. The conflagration began at 10:47 a.m. as the tiniest of sparks. Just off Buckingham Boulevard, below the Hiller Highlands, an ember from the previous day ' s brush fire found new life at the hot stroke of the devil wind. A small flicker found plentiful fuel in bushes and scrub turned to brittle wicks by five years of drought and a record root-killing freeze. Within 15 minutes, 100 acres had become a voracious wall 14 BERKELEY HILLS FIRE LI. o —I o

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Q u I E T LIFE SUPPORT 13

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