Crews contain 3-alarm fire that threatened homes in Oakland Hills

OAKLAND (CBS SF) – A fire that grew to three alarms and threatened at least three homes in the Oakland Hills was contained Thursday evening, according to firefighters.

At a briefing, Fire Chief Reginald Freeman said they first received a call of a fire on the 6800 block of Aitken Drive at 4:17 p.m. A second alarm was declared at 4:23 p.m. and at 4:26 p.m., a third alarm was called.

Freeman said the fire took place in a high fire severity zone. 

"The initial incident commander made the right call in elevating our response," the chief said. 

Firefighters from Station 24, which was less than a mile from the scene, responded quickly.  

"Their quick response and the efforts of our firefighters to where we did not have more losses than we had," Freeman said.

According to Freeman, the fire happened in the rear of a property and spread to the adjacent two properties.

During the fire, smoke was visible over much of Oakland, with pictures and reports of the smoke posted to social media.

During the fire, crews evacuated residents and rescued one of the resident's pets. No injuries were reported.

According to Freeman, the fire was deemed accidental.

The chief said as of Thursday evening about 50 firefighters remained on scene.

• Oakland
• Oakland Fire Department