document: Now , in the wake of that firestorm , local firefighters are looking up at the hills that surround this area and wondering not whether , but only when and where. ; `` I know it 's there , '' said Saratoga Fire Chief Ernest Kraule . `` Every fire chief -- there 's 12 of us in this county -- knows it 's there . '' ; The danger is in the Saratoga foothills , where Kraule 's department has battled nine deliberately set fires since June -- most recently Oct. 19 , the same day Oakland firefighters thought they had contained a brush fire that a day later blossomed into the deadly firestorm. ; It 's in the mountain communities that straddle Highway 9 in Santa Cruz County , isolated by weak bridges that wo n't support some firetrucks and connected by a two-lane road that will hinder escape. ; It 's in Los Altos Hills , where residents in 1984 repealed an ordinance requiring fire-retardant roofs ; a year later , a fire destroyed 100 acres and 12 homes , many of which have been rebuilt -- with the same flammable shake roofs. ; In fact , the danger of an Oakland-like inferno is in almost all of the hills that ring the South Bay , where homes often are surrounded by dense brush or stately trees , the fuel of rapidly spreading wildfires. ; And the risk is increasing , as cramped Bay Area residents push farther into the hills and canyons in search of living space and rural atmosphere . State officials say it 's no coincidence that six of California 's 10 most damaging wildfires have occurred since 1980. ; `` The tendency is to have bigger fires that are much more expensive to put out , with much more property loss , '' said Roy Pike , a deputy chief in the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection 's Santa Rosa office. ; Privacy 's high price ; Having pushed into these areas , city dwellers do n't understand that the wooded seclusion and natural beauty exact a cost in fire protection , rescue workers complain. ; In cities , a firetruck might respond to an alarm within two or three minutes ; in the Highway 9 communities , they hope for 10 minutes . Instead of an eight - or 10-inch water main ensuring pressure for fire hoses , the mountains are laced with two-inch pipes. ; `` Those are the risks you take when you live in an area like this , '' said Dean Lucke , chief of the forestry department 's San Mateo-Santa Cruz ranger unit . `` We ca n't guarantee everyone 's safety up here at all times . '' ; In general , firefighters say , the heavily wooded Santa Cruz Mountains are more susceptible to major fires than the grass-covered eastern foothills . Take the 1985 fire above Lexington Reservoir , which blazed for six days , scorching nearly 14,000 acres and destroying 42 homes. ; But there are exceptions , such as narrow Kilkare Canyon near Sunol , where 200 homes are strung along a narrow , five-mile dead-end road that empties onto narrow , winding Niles Canyon Road. ; `` A large concentration of vegetation , heavy fuel loads , lots of wooden structures , ingress-egress -LRB- problems -RRB- , lack of water , they 're all there , '' said Fremont Fire Chief Dan Lydon , whose department would be one of the first called to a fire in Kilkare . `` If there 's an area that has the significant potential for disaster , that 's one . '' ; Codes rarely enforced ; In the hills , nearly every home is surrounded by thick brush or dense woods . Fire codes require residents to keep the trees 30 feet from their homes , but fire officials admit they rarely enforce them . Instead , as they drive by , some firefighters make mental notes about which homes would be worth saving. ; `` You do this evaluation of what you think you 'd be effective at salvaging , '' said Don Shaw , a battalion chief for the Palo Alto Fire Department . By not trimming dense brush , he said , some homeowners are `` virtually signing a death warrant . '' ; And increasingly , fire officials worry about wildfires spreading into even more heavily populated areas at the base of the foothills , where numerous trees create an `` urban forest . '' ; `` We could have a fire going from rooftop to treetop to rooftop to treetop in any number of areas in this city , if the weather conditions are right , '' said San Jose Fire Chief Robert Osby. ; The lesson of the Oakland hills , firefighters say , is to contain and extinguish even the smallest fires as quickly as possible . But , often , that means firefighters have to overcome narrow roads , weak bridges , inadequate water pressure and gridlock from fleeing residents. ; Challenge for firefighters ; Many of the South Bay 's most vulnerable areas -- such as Redwood Estates above Los Gatos and Emerald Lake Hills above Redwood City -- began as colonies of summer homes , a handful of secluded cottages strung along narrow winding roads . Now , these communities are the year-round home for thousands , often still dependent on volunteer firefighters and an overtaxed network of roads and water lines. ; `` On a good day , trying to maneuver fire apparatus on those roads is tough , '' said Steve Cavallero , a battalion chief for the Redwood City Fire Department , which covers a portion of Emerald Lake Hills . `` Combine that with panic , with people getting out of the way , and you 're setting the stage for disaster . '' ; An estimated 25,000 people live in the communities along Highway 9 between Santa Cruz and Boulder Creek , the curvy , two-lane road that would be the only way out in the case of a major fire . How would all those people escape ? ; `` That 's a good question , '' said O.J. Burrell , chief of fire prevention at the San Mateo-Santa Cruz ranger unit. ; Weak bridges keep firetrucks out of many of those communities , as well as New Almaden Valley south of San Jose , forcing firefighters to carry hoses by hand . Ed Ekers , chief of the Santa Cruz city fire department , worries about sending his trucks through `` a tunnel of fire '' if flames were ever to spread across the canopy of trees above Highway 9. ; Will there be water ? ; Even if they can reach a blaze , firefighters know there may not be any water to fight it . In Oakland , water pressure dropped as electricity failures shut off pumps and thousands of open hydrants and water connections quickly drained reservoirs. ; That could happen even in urbanized areas of Santa Clara County because the major water suppliers rely on a similar system of electric pumps to maintain water pressure in the foothills . `` We would face the same situation , '' said Sharon Whaley , spokeswoman for the San Jose Water Co. , which serves foothill areas in Los Gatos , Saratoga and Almaden. ; In rural areas , water supplies are even chancier . In the east foothills and southern Santa Clara County , homeowners have to provide only 5,000 gallons for firefighting , barely enough for five minutes at the rate some firetrucks pump. ; To Mike Balesteri , chief of the forestry department ranger unit in Santa Clara County , the lesson is simple : `` It 's either bring your own water or find your own water in our game . '' ; Taps would go dry quickly ; Even when rural communities have upgraded their water systems -- as Redwood Estates did -- firefighters say the taps would start to run low if three or four houses were burning at once. ; Local officials say they try to limit fire hazards largely by restricting development in the hills . But many of the most dangerous areas were built long before modern planning ordinances and building codes. ; And for every community , like Saratoga , that requires fire-retardant roofs , there are others , like Los Altos Hills , unwilling to suffer even that inconvenience. ; Seven years later , the Los Altos Hills revolt against fire-retardant roofs still resonates in the mind of Los Altos Fire Chief Dick Landrum , whose department is charged with protecting the area. ; `` Every time my fire marshal starts to talk about amendments to the ... building code , they say , ` Do n't even bring it up , ' '' Landrum said. ; `` I would hate to say it , but I 'd anticipate another Oakland . ''
extractive_keyphrases: oakland firefighters brush fire deadly firestorm damaging wildfires fire protection fire officials fire prevention fire hazards saratoga foothills