Talk:Oakland firestorm of 1991

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Proposal to add info on Rockridge BART memorial

I propose to add in "Aftermath" that the Rockridge BART station in Oakland has a "Memorial Tile Wall" that was commemorated October 19, 2006 (Source). It contains 2,300 tiles hand-painted by community members commemorating the lives lost. (Source) (Source). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.71.19.210 (talk) 01:07, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

Proposal to Rename/Move

I propose to rename the article to conform with the most common (by far) name that is used for the fire: the Oakland firestorm 1991, because: (1) there is as yet no proper geographical name "Oakland Hills"---they are still officially the Berkeley Hills. They may well be the Oakland hills (no cap), but until the Geographic Nomenclature Poobahs say otherwise, they're still the Berkeley Hills. If I had my say, they'd go back to being the Contra Costa Hills; (2) Google shows 175,000 entries for "Oakland firestorm", but only 48,100 for Oakland Hills Firestorm, and only the first page or so of these are verbatim. Tmangray 00:06, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

The title I propose above, while conforming to the most common name appearing, seems nonetheless awkward as is. Alternate proposed titles: (1) Oakland Firestorm of 1991, or (2) 1991 Oakland Firestorm. Tmangray 00:23, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Or (3) Oakland Firestorm (1991). Tmangray 03:18, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

All three paragraphs of this proposal are by the same person, and the name change seems to have been made without any discussion. FEMA's link FEMA: California Oakland Hills Fire seems to suggest that the "Oakland Hills Fire" is the declared emergency name. Furthermore, is there really no such thing as the Oakland Hills? People seem to call it by that name here all the time (perhaps informally)? I'd like to see some sources cited that will convince readers that geographers have only named the entire stretch of hills after Berkeley. Gordeonbleu 22:40, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Go to the discussion page for Berkeley Hills. In fact, there is no such proper name "Oakland Hills" for the hills of Oakland. Yet. Tmangray 23:23, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Judging from what I've seen in the Berkeley Hills talk page, there's an unsettled dispute over the "Berkeley Hills"/"Oakland Hills" definition that only started yesterday. It hardly seems fair to make such a decisive change to other articles when the discussion is very recent and still very open. Gordeonbleu 04:45, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

As for the FEMA link, there's nothing there anymore. The title they used is a title, so they used caps. The USGS GNIS (official geog. nomenclature index) has no listing for "Oakland Hills", except as a possible alternate name for the San Leandro Hills. Tmangray 23:27, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

The article was improperly moved and renamed such that the talk and history were omitted. The name assigned was not the most common name found on search engines such as Google. I restored the talk and history to the article and renamed it in accordance with the most commonly found name. Tmangray 17:14, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

I grew up in the Bay Area and remember the Oakland Hills Fire when it happened. The locals call it that, in my experience, and apparently it's also the official FEMA designation. Can we rename this page to reflect that? —Arthaey (talk) 00:31, 15 October 2017 (UTC)

I lived in the Bay Area at the time of the fire. My impression then was that the media adopted the term "firestorm", most likely because it was dramatic and, for print, shorter. I support renaming the article.--Quisqualis (talk) 14:15, 15 October 2017 (UTC)

I agree with Quisqualis. Check out the Oakland Hills Fire Memorial Park at 37.850212, -122.226248. The accepted name of the event is pretty obvious. I also support putting the year (1991) in the article title. Oakland Hills Fire (1991). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pechaney (talk • contribs) 16:54, 12 November 2017 (UTC)

Wish it was still titled Oakland Hills Fire. (1991) would be okay too since there were THREE of them - 1923, 1970, and 1980. "Firestorm" is hokey-ass b.s., no native calls it that. Yeah, I'm a native. In fact had two friends who lost houses in that fire. 116.231.78.79 (talk) 09:54, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Deaths

My recollection at the time was 80 people killed. I am probably wrong. Does anyone have a source for the number 25? --AStanhope 00:32, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Here is one: http://www.sfmuseum.org/oakfire/overview.html Lagringa 21:50, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Other Fires

I removed the discussion of other fires in the past 100 years. The fact that major fires occur somewhere in a large metropolitan area with some frequency is not noteworthy. Lagringa 19:53, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Except for the SF quake fire and the 1923 Berkeley fire since only these two others razed large numbers of homes inside the urbanized area. These two fires are the ones which were most mentioned in discussions and media coverage of the Oakland fire. Tmangray 00:26, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Image

I thought is would be less confusing if north was at the top. I'm not sure if my attempt to upload the flipped image was successful. If not, could someone else please fix it? Lagringa 21:50, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Don't know if this goes in the article,but...

As I was watching a Detroit Lions-San Francisco 49ers on Sacro's KXTV that very Sunday,I saw the plume of smoke from a angled live shot during the game as the assigned NFL on CBS play-by-play announcer informed viewers of what was unfolding across the bay from Candlestick Park at that very moment.Though it's unknown whether there's a reliable online source,I'd figure I'd make this suggestion anyway... Ranma9617 02:34, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

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