tonight on a second look, fiver years of drought and just the -- five years of drought and just the right conditions today. the biggest storm hit the east bay in memory. the most destructive urban wildfire in history. 20 years later we look back at the east bay hills fire. you're going to hear from some of our own photographers who risked their lives to capture these images of that terrifying day. you will hear why the roads in the oakland hills contributed

to the death toll. plus we will show a nearly identical fire 60 years later in the same area. the search for a beloved family member and a reunion to remember. it's all straight ahead on a second look. i'm frank somerville. this week marks a grim anniversary here in the bay area. it was the most destructive urban wildfire in american history and it destroyed 3,000 homes and killed 25 people. there were fears that it would burn from the hills to the bay. in 1995, ktvu's health and science editor john fowler prepared this look back at the east bay hills fire. this fire storm began life as smoldering embers of a hills fire that was believed out. hot dry wind blew brands across roads, across whole neighborhoods. >> everybody in this area, please start leaving the area now. we're going to evacuate this area. and you are likely to leave the

area now. >> hey, get out. >> reporter: 25 people died, including a firefighter and police officer who were trapped in a fire storm by falling wires. >> my god i've never seen anything like this. >> will you get down here, we'll get reorganized and we'll get companies inside. the fire has jumped way past you and is moving toward the country club. >> i am going to try to make a stand along beach wood right now. i'm putting two strike teams along beachwood. >> reporter: 3,000 homes burned, damage over $1.5 billion. it was by far california's worse ever wildfire an inferno that fire officials conceived they were not prepared for. >> trying to set a perimeter in

a certain area. but the wind just keeps on moving. >> seems like every time you try to throw something at it it keeps on moving. >> you try the best way to surround it. >> if the wind picks up can you do anything? >> no. >> that's what happens when you can't get any air support. >> it's not worth to go in there. >> just leave it on top of that. >> reporter: it made its own hellish weather slowing only in the cool air. in true, firefighters never caught up. >> could you give us some room

please. stand back. >> there's no hope in my opinion that our house would be saved. we prayed, and we had that sort of faith but we also have to be realistic. >> reporter: because of this nightmare, many things have changed. firefighters now evaluate weather on an hourly basis if it's hot, dry and windy extra crews go on duty. any hill fire in dangerous weather gets triple fire crew coverage. and fire fighting helicopter and airplanes are called immediately. rapid communication systems link east bay hill, fire agencies and fire officials say residents of the heavily wooded hills are at less risk today. >> i would say we're much much safer but the danger is still there. i think that if you're going to live and work in these hills, in this type of environment. you really have to be vigilant about your own surroundings. >> reporter: from the air today it looks like a new community.

the once fire ravaged hills are greening again. sprouting new homes, new ideas, new attitudes. today a pg & e line men scaled the last poll and crews ceremoniously pulled the poll out of the ground. completing the new -- the rest of the burn area is scheduled for completion in a year and half. it is designed to save lives. >> it's an amazing feeling to look overhead and not see wires. we cannot forget the deaths that occurred because of the fallen wires. >> reporter: the streets in this area, buckingham boulevard are narrow and winding. cars fill them with people trying to get away. it created a traffic jam that rivaled any morning traffic. >> it's a fire. >> what do you think we're looking for. >> get out of the way.

>> come on let's go, out, out, out. >> the wind seemed to shift directions constantly. people who thought their homes were safe were in an instant in danger. some thought hosing off their roofs but they say they might as well have tried blowing the fire out for all the good it was doing. >> ktvu channel 2 photographers captured stunning images. and they did it at great risks to their own lives. some ended up requiring treatment. here is their story of that terrifying day. >> i remember the winds that day being exceptionally strong. and the winds that day seemed like they were just blowing 20,

30-miles-an-hour. within a couple of minutes it was obvious that this is not going to be a routine fire. >> i saw fire pouring, i've seen it pouring but i've never seen it tumbling, tumbling just pouring down. >> the fire and excitement seemed to seduce me. i wanted to get sharper, i wanted to get closerment i didn't want to stand and cover this, i wanted -- wanted to get closer. i want didn't want to stand and cover this, i wanted to get closer and that was my biggest mistake. >> a worker was working with an elderly woman.

and both of us were locked into it. we weren't reporters that the time. we were just sort of part of it. that was rather scary. the smoke was so bad i just decided that we had to run. >> let's get out of here. >> you couldn't see. wind would hit you in one direction and it would be hot. then it came back and it was hot. and you couldn't see anything that i couldn't tell whether i was running into fire or not. it's the only time in my career that i thought, i've gone too far. i may become a victim while reporting it. >> my god i've never seen

nothing like this. >> i was on rock ridge when i really got kind of scared. because i looked around and there were about 10 houses or 10 homes burning at the same time. and i would look around and there were embers blowing and flying through the air. and i felt like if i make maybe 10 or 15 steps further, that i might not be able to get back. >> i was watching the fire through the view finder. and it seems like i am kind of -- i'm disassociated from what's happening if i look at it through the view finder. but it got hotter and hotter. and smokier and smokier and then i could not see. the winds came up real strong

at that point. and within 20 seconds flames exploded all around us. right then a fire truck comes zooming up the field through this wall of flames and there was five firefighters on that truck. they stopped and grabbed us and they threw us on the fire truck and said, we have to get out of here. >> get out. >> when i got with the firefighters and then i started rolling again because i felt safe again. that's when i became a photographer again instead of somebody running for their life. and now i know that the guy that was on my left was chief wiley. the guy that didn't make it.

>> anybody find wiley? >> if you start letting your feelings become involved then you can't do your job. you have to divorce yourself sort of. separate yourself and like i said, it was just like some sort of natural instincts thing that i rolled. you know no matter what, it's like that's what i'm there for. is to capture the drama of it not to become part of the drama. but you know if you want to be the best at what you're doing. and you want to get the shots that no one else gets. then you have to take that extra step. >> still to come on a second look. how the roads in the oakland hills hamper both the fire fight and the escape as the flames rage from house to house.

and a bit later, not oakland 1991 but berkeley 1923. the earlier fire that was eeriely similar to the oakland fire.

tonight we're looking back 20 years at the east bay hills fire. beginning on october 20th 1991. it burned fiercely all day and into the night. narrow winding roads hampered the escape for many, now years later similar streets can be found all around the bay area. ktvu's rob roth first brought us this special report in 2005. >> channel 2 photographer nick sorens new york city son were near by when the fire turned from grass fire to confrontation. we were here until the last fire truck happened by us. jim riley told us to hop on and

we did. the truck sped ahead and firefighters ordered frightened residents to evacuate. >> spread out, get out. >> chief riley would die a short time later trying to help a woman. >> anybody find riley. >> the evacuation was becoming tragic. but one was especially horrific. this is sharon cross road a street so many people came down with trying to escape the fire. it's also where more people died that day than any where else in the entire east bay hills. of the 25 people killed in the fire 11 lost their lives on sherry cross including john grobenski. he was trying to lead five people out on foot when the smoke and flames overtook them killing them all. sharon cross was only 13 feet wide in some places that's 7 feet narrower than what city codes called for. >> there were people who were

trying to exit the fire area. there was the fire department trying to go in and make the stand. that in itself was the narrow roadway creates a bottleneck. >> reporter: after the fire with a million dollars grant from fema, oakland widened the lane to 20 feet. but the hair pin turns remain, future choke points that wor recurrent -- that worry current residents. >> in the event that there's a car in the way. we can't get our car through. we'll be able to hop in a bike and boogy out of here. >> a look from above shows the twisty rout residents would have to maneuver. there are thousands of roads that are sub standards when it

comes to width. after the fire, they painted lines to help ease potential problems but some roads are 11 feet wide. that's only 8-inches wider than a fire engine. >> the road won't support as many people for them to get out. so one of the things we try to encourage people is you know go out on foot, out on bike. and other ways that they can escape and flee the fire to go to a safe area. >> hope that if it ever does happen you have enough notice to get out. >> reporter: according to the bay area government's 55% of the region's residential housing sits next to grassland. >> you have places in the

peninsula such as los altos hill. you have lafayette, orinda, moraga, these are very predominant through the bay area. >> when we come back on a second look, the 1923 fire that threatened to destroy much of the city of oakley. and moments later, returning to the destruction to see what came through.

tonight we mark the 20th anniversary of the east bay hills fire. the 1991 wildfire was not the first to devastate the east bay. back in the 20s a fire hit the berkeley hills with the same ferocity and same destructive fire. >> reporter: a fire gave residents the first heavy handed hit of their wooded

enclave. on september 17th. high winds out of the north blew across a small grass fire in wildcat canyon and quickly carried over the ridge down into north berkeley. along the way the fire found the friendliest of fuel is nine out of every 10 berkeley hill homes were covered with wooden shingles. >> cedar shingles, curve, and the dryness of summer and the fire brands will get under that shingle and they will take off and then of course when the entire structure goes, that shingle goes down to start another fire. >> reporter: by 2:00 in the afternoon, the fire had moved with astounding speed. jumping from the backwoods of wildcat canyon to the city limits of berkeley. no one knew it at the time but the fire had a predictable although inauspicious beginning. >> just how did the fire and the berkeley hills get started after the winds die down and

the ashes finally cool, the u.s. forestry service began an investigation and they found that hikers on a trail smoking cigarettes accidentally started the fire. berkeley firefighters were overmatched at the outset. still it was man against nature and nature was winning. >> the design of north berkeley at that time was tight winding streets just as it is today but even more so a lot of vegetation in the area scattered homes, wood shingles came into play dramatically in the fire. >> people were also taking matters into their own hands. defending their homes as best they could. trying to stave off the inevitable. trying to stave off the fire with garden hoses and no water. >> there was no water coming out. maybe a drop or two but it was

maybe water in the hose daughter. my mother saw that and just broke down. and our neighbor had a model t at that time. and he went up the hill and came back and said, the whole town is gone. >> almost 600 buildings burned to the ground while the dust settled and the ashes cooled, stocks of chimneys stood as sentinals in a cemetery. the fire burned down to the intersection of shadoxx avenue. out of fuel and no longer driven by the wind the fire stopped here. the 1923 fire has been called the worse disaster in the history of berkeley.

but it was not a lesson well learned. rather it was more a painful preview of what was to come. evident to the truth that the east bay hills are a disaster waiting to happen. >> when we come back on a second look. >> kitty, kitty, kitty. >> reporter: the desperate search for a beloved family member and a reunion to remember. some things won't last 25 years. ah! woof. some things will. save up to 20% on an ikea kitchen.

you're on timeout leo! some things won't last 25 years. ah! woof. some things will. save up to 20% on an ikea kitchen. while the east bay fires were overwhelming. the true significance was measured in individual stories. two days after the fire, craig heeps found people going back to their neighborhoods to assess their losses and salvage what they could. and finding a heartwarming surprise among the ashes. >> this was the line for people who's lives had been turned upside down by one day of fire at the oakland hills. police took them a few at a time back to their old neighborhoods to see what had

burned and what had not. bill passhe and his friends came back to look for bill's three cats. >> kitty, kitty, kitty. >> reporter: payne and her son ashton came to see the ashes of their four bedroom, three bathhouse. >> this was given to us when we got married. >> here's my brother's tric. >> while some searches for momentoes, others search for

meaningful items. >> we found a cat. >> where? >> i don't know. >> i am so glad you two are okay. >> oh my god. >> you found them? >> yes, yes. he's smarter than he looks. >> like this. >> congratulations. >> thank you. god. it's okay honey. it's okay. >> and that's it for this week's second look. i'm frank somerville. we'll see you next week.