Morning News

CNN 20: Fires in Oakland, California, October 19, 1991

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GOV. PETE WILSON, CALIFORNIA: You could see terrible devastation. What showed up last night as burning hot spots in that black of night, this morning were clearly the charred ruins of hundreds of homes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Winds just brought it down from above. It didn't move along the ground, it just came down on roofs. And there was a house below us that started burning, our house started burning, houses up the hill, down the street, everywhere -- very sudden.

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CHUCK AFFLERBACH, CNN AUDIO TECHNICIAN: It was so eerie because it was -- it seemed so quiet, for this neighborhood to be just totally vacant. People -- most people had fled. Others were packing up and leaving. I remember seeing people wheeling their belongings in wheelbarrows down the hill. And, you know, we're talking about winding mountain roads. It was a beautiful tree-covered neighborhood with beautiful shingle houses, and that's why it burned so fast.

I know that there were over 2,000 homes burned, and I remember two dozen people being killed. Most of them were trapped in cars trying to flee down the winding hills. To this day, they're still rebuilding homes up there.

It's changed drastically from being a tree-covered hillside to being almost bare in a sense there's no greenery.

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