BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) — An early morning two-alarm fire destroyed one home and damaged part of another up in the Berkeley Hills on Thursday.
“I came up here onto my deck and saw flames over those cypress trees over there. They were very high. We knew something, a fire was happening, and it was close,” says Noah Starr, who lives a block away from the fire.
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Starr says his wife was up in the middle of the night feeding their newborn. She alerted him to the sounds. And then they saw the flames. Starr says they didn’t get any alerts, so he called 911 and got confirmation of a house fire.
“It’s wild because I think we are still technically in winter, and this is just wild that this happened,” says Starr.
The Berkeley Fire Department says the fire broke out just before 4 a.m. Fire crews were quick to arrive on scene to find that all the residents were safe. One of the tenants just moved in on Sunday. He says there were several people who lived here as roommates.
The cause of the fire is also still unknown.
But for many neighbors, the fire highlights another concern.
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“Living in the Berkeley Hills we are very aware of the risk of fire,” explains Starr.
But this time, the problem is: How to get out?
The road was blocked due to the fire activity. The other way is a small path that leads to the UC Berkeley Lawrence Hall of Science parking lot, which is supposed to be an escape route for this neighborhood. But they couldn’t open the gate.
“The gate was locked. The code we thought we were to use as neighbor didn’t work. When we reached that conclusion, it was absolutely terrifying because at that point, we knew we can’t leave in a car. ” The fire is that way,” says Starr.
The Starr family says they first raised concerns about the path back in 2022.
Starr says Berkeley City Council Member Brent Blackaby arrived on scene around 7 a.m. Starr walked Blackaby over to the locked gate. They hope to reach a resolution with UC Berkeley.
“He was able to take a look at it and made some commitments that he was going to speak to UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor, who is in charge of that facility’s related issue,” says Starr.
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