Firefighters Make Progress In Rim Fire, Smoke Drifts Into Central Valley
Winds had been blowing dense smoke plumes northeast into the Lake Tahoe area and Nevada but a shift Friday brought them west down to the San Joaquin Valley floor.
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Winds had been blowing dense smoke plumes northeast into the Lake Tahoe area and Nevada but a shift Friday brought them west down to the San Joaquin Valley floor.
San Francisco firefighters who have spent the past nine days battling the Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park are heading back to the Bay Area, fire officials said Friday.
An elderly woman was in critical condition and another injured from a two-alarm residential fire near Penitencia Creek County Park in San Jose Friday morning, according to the fire department.
The huge Sierra Nevada wildfire and its smoke plume have caused some fearful tourists to opt out of plans for the last big travel weekend of the summer, but most appear intent to go through with their vacations.
Firefighters extinguished a three-alarm grass fire that temporarily shut down a lane of Interstate Highway 780 in Vallejo Thursday morning, according to Vallejo fire officials and the California Highway Patrol.
A portion of Tioga Road in Yosemite National Park is being closed for the Labor Day weekend as firefighters look to stop the spread of the Rim Fire.
Firefighters battling the giant wildfire burning in the Sierra Nevada added a California National Guard Predator drone to their arsenal Wednesday to give them almost immediate views of any portion of the flames.
Unnaturally long intervals between wildfires and years of drought primed the Sierra Nevada for the explosive conflagration chewing up the rugged landscape on the edge of Yosemite National Park, forestry experts say.
Several homes were damaged late Tuesday afternoon in a quick-moving vegetation fire that grew to seven alarms, scorched 40 acres and engulfed part of a neighborhood near Interstate 80 in Fairfield.
A two-alarm apartment fire in Oakland's Adams Point neighborhood displaced three people Tuesday afternoon, an Oakland fire battalion chief said.
Firefighters were able to douse a blaze at a home in Oakland.
As a massive wildfire burning into Yosemite National Park grew to nearly 200 square miles, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for the city of San Francisco 150 miles away because of the threat to the city's utilities.
A wildfire outside Yosemite National Park nearly quadrupled in size Thursday, prompting California Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency.
Firefighters who responded to a one-alarm house fire in unincorporated Hayward Wednesday night discovered a marijuana grow operation and more than 200 marijuana plants, a fire official said.
An elderly woman drove her car into home in the Oakland Hills Wednesday afternoon, sparking a garage fire, a fire battalion chief said.
Firefighters contained a grass fire that burned about 170 acres near the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin Tuesday afternoon and sent a plume of smoke into the sky that could be seen for miles.
The National Weather Service extended a red-flag warning for parts of the Bay Area, as more lightning was expected to strike Tuesday afternoon and later into the evening, according to KPIX 5 Meteorologist Lawrence Karnow.
Lightning strikes were reported in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties Monday night, according to the National Weather Service.
A limousine fire on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge that killed five nurses trapped in the back was sparked by a mechanical problem. Meanwhile, dramatic recordings of 911 calls released Monday revealed desperate pleas for help outside the burning vehicle.
Erratic winds fanned a Northern California wildfire that threatened more than 300 structures Monday, but the hundreds who evacuated from homes over the weekend were allowed to return as containment lines expanded.
A San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman said officials plan to review a policy that prohibits fire fighters from recording emergency scenes without advance approval from the city's fire chief.
A California Highway Patrol officer shot a suspect in a hit-and-run collision Friday afternoon on Highway 24 in Oakland, in an incident that closed the eastbound Caldecott Tunnel at the height of rush hour, law enforcement officials said.
A new lawsuit was filed against Chevron on behalf of more than 5,000 people Monday seeking compensation for damage caused by the catastrophic fire at the company's refinery in Richmond a year ago.
A four-alarm fire destroyed a shop, a garage and a granny unit on a residential property just east of Vacaville Monday morning, a deputy fire chief said.
One year after a massive fire broke out at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, Bay Area air officials are continuing their efforts to better monitor refinery emissions.
