__NOTOC__ The 1923 Berkeley Fire was a

conflagration A conflagration is a large fire. Conflagrations often damage human life, animal life, health, and/or property. A conflagration can begin accidentally, be naturally caused (wildfire), or intentionally created (arson). A very large fire can produc ...

that consumed some 640 structures, including 584 homes in the densely-built neighborhoods north of the campus of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

on September 17, 1923. Although the exact cause was never determined, the fire began in the undeveloped

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranea ...

and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...

s of Wildcat Canyon, just east of the ridgeline of the

Berkeley Hills The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges that overlook the northeast side of the valley that encompasses San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills" (from the original Spanish ''Sierra de l ...

, and was propelled over the ridge and southwestward just south of Codornices Creek by a strong, gusty, and intensely dry northeasterly wind. The fire quickly blew up as it swept through the

La Loma Park La Loma Park is a tract of land located in the Berkeley Hills section of the city of Berkeley, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Spanish word ''loma'' means "rise/low hill". It was the property of Captain Richard Parks Thomas, a vetera ...

and

Northside Northside or North Side may refer to: Music * Northside (band), a musical group from Manchester, England * NorthSide, an American record label * NorthSide Festival (Denmark), a music festival in Aarhus, Denmark * " Norf Norf", a 2015 song by Vinc ...

neighborhoods of Berkeley, overwhelming the capabilities of the Berkeley Fire Department to stop it. The home at 125 Shasta Road was the first to be destroyed in the fire. A number of UC students fought the advance of the fire as it approached the north edge of the University of California campus, at Hearst Avenue. The other edge of the fire was fought by firefighters as it advanced on

downtown Berkeley Downtown Berkeley is the central business district of the city of Berkeley, California, United States, around the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, and extending north to Hearst Avenue, south to Dwight Way, west to Martin Luther Ki ...

along the east side of

Shattuck Avenue Shattuck Avenue is a major city street running north–south through Berkeley, California, and Oakland, California. At its southern end, the street branches from Telegraph Avenue in Oakland's Temescal district, then ends at Indian Rock Park ...

north of University Avenue. Firefighters were rushed in from neighboring

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

, and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

sent firefighters by

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...

across the bay. Intersection of Scenic Ave and Virginia St right after the fire

Firefighting efforts were hampered by the inadequacy of water mains in northern Berkeley, where rapid development after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake had outgrown the water supply in the fire area. Firefighters trying to fight the fire connected to hydrants in the area that hissed dry and were hampered also by the predominance of cedar shake roofs. However, according to Audrey Boyd in ''The Berkeley Fire,'' "rivers of water could have been poured into that blaze without deterring it." The strong and dry wind lifted burning shakes off burning houses and quickly spread the fire. The fire was halted only when the northeasterly winds died down and were replaced by the cool, humid afternoon sea breeze. The fire lines were established at Hearst and Shattuck Avenues, where larger water mains delivered a reliable water supply for firefighting. The total loss was estimated at $10,000,000 by the National Board of Fire Underwriters. Building styles in North Berkeley changed dramatically after the 1923 fire, with stucco and tile roof homes largely, but not entirely, replacing the wood-sided and cedar-shaked construction styles popularized by the Berkeley Hillside Club before the fire. As a belated result of the fire, the City of Berkeley constructed a fire station in the hills at 2931 Shasta Road (at Queens Road) just below Grizzly Peak Blvd, in 1948.City Council Minutes, Aug.26, 1947 In the early 2000s, this station was replaced and relocated to a nearby site just above Grizzly Peak Blvd. at 3000 Shasta Road,Berkeley Fire Department Stations
/ref> on the interface between the residential area and

Tilden Regional Park Charles Lee Tilden Regional Park, also known as Tilden Park or Tilden, [], is a regional park in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. It is between the Berkeley Hills and San Pablo R ...

, very close to the putative origin of the 1923 fire.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* ''Report on the Berkeley, California Conflagration of September 17, 1923'',

National Board of Fire Underwriters The American Insurance Association (AIA) is an insurance industry trade association representing about 300 insurance companies that provide property insurance and/or casualty insurance in the United States. Founded in 1866 as the National Boar ...

' Committee on Fire Prevention and Engineering Standards. *
The Story of the Berkeley Fire
', unknown date, unknown author. *
The Berkeley Fire
', Aubrey Boyd.

External links

Archived footage of the 1923 fire

* ttps://www.dailycal.org/2017/10/15/trailing-blazes-back-revisiting-the-1923-berkeley-fire "Wildfire: Berkeley, 1923". ''The New Yorker''.
"Trailing blazes back: Revisiting the 1923 Berkeley Fire". ''The Daily Californian''. 2017-10-15.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berkeley fire 1923 fires in the United States 1920s wildfires in the United States Fires in California Berkeley Hills 20th century in Berkeley, California Berkeley Fire, 1923 1923 in California 1923 natural disasters in the United States September 1923 events Wildfires in California

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links