SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A fast-moving fire fueled by high winds burned two homes and damaged several others in a hilly neighborhood Friday in the city of Oaklandwhere about 500 people were ordered to evacuate, officials said.

Fire Chief Damon Covington said calls came in about a fire outside a home in the Oakland Hills around 1:30 p.m. Crews arrived as the inferno grew rapidly with winds ranging from a calm breeze to gusts of 40 mph during red flag conditions.

“The wind was blowing,” Covington said.

Michael Hunt, a fire department spokesman, said one of the homes was significantly burned, while the second suffered minor damage from the flames. Fewer than ten other homes had smoke and water damage. Early reports had conflicting numbers of structures affected.

The fire occurred near the 580 Freeway, which connects the San Francisco Bay Area with central California, causing traffic jams as people tried to leave the area and sending smoke billowing over the city of 440,000.

The fire charred through eucalyptus trees, which spread the fire as flames jumped the sides of the roadway, Covington said. Within three hours it grew to 13 acres (about 5.3 hectares). Around 4 p.m., crews were able to stop its advance, although dozens of firefighters continued to fight.

“We have less than 10 homes that were damaged, and we had hundreds of homes and structures that were threatened,” the chief said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Authorities have issued red flag warnings of fire danger through Saturday across much of the state, from the Central Coast through the Bay Area to northern Shasta County, not far from the Oregon border.

A California utility shut off power in 19 counties in the northern and central part of the state as a major “ diablo wind ” – infamous in the fall for hot, dry wind gusts – increases the risk of wildfires.

The Oakland Hills fire raged a day before the 19th birthday of a 1991 fire which destroyed almost 3,000 homes and killed 25 people.

Smoke was visible from a distance of 3 to 5 kilometers on Friday. Fire trucks and ambulances tried to get through the gridlock in the westbound lanes of the highway, their sirens blaring to move vehicles out of the way as they raced toward the blaze. Traffic frustrated some motorists so much that they left the roadway through on-ramps, while others drove on the highway’s shoulder. The side streets also remained heavily blocked.

Red flag warnings were also issued in parts of Southern California, where another wildfire raged toward homes in the Rolling Heights area of ​​Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.

The fire was reported around 3 p.m. in the hills of Hacienda Heights, where firefighters on the ground and in the air tried to keep the 5-acre blaze from reaching nearby homes, the department said. No evacuations have been ordered.

About 16,000 customers were without electricity Friday after Pacific Gas and Electric turned off power.

During a diablo wind, the air is so dry that the relative humidity drops, causing vegetation to dry out and be ready to burn. The name – “diablo” is Spanish for “devil” – is informally applied to a hot wind that blows from inland toward the coast near the San Francisco region as high pressure builds over the west.

The “diablo winds” are forecast to produce sustained winds of up to 35 miles per hour in many areas, with possible gusts of up to 64 miles per hour along mountain peaks, according to the National Weather Service. The strong winds are expected to continue for part of the weekend.

In total, about 20,000 customers could temporarily lose power in the coming days, PG&E said in a statement Friday.

The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings for the valleys and mountains of Los Angeles County, parts of the Inland Empire and the San Bernardino Mountains from Santa Anas, dry, warm and gusty northeasterly winds moving from inland Southern California to blowing the coast. coastal and offshore The wind moves in the opposite direction of the normal onshore flow that carries moist air from the Pacific Ocean to the region.

Winds around greater Los Angeles won’t be as strong as in the north, with gusts between 25 and 40 mph (40 and 64 kph) possible in the mountains and foothills, said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the state’s office weather service in los angeles.

The strongest winds were recorded in the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains, where gusts were between 45 and 55 mph (72 and 88 kph) on Friday with isolated gusts of up to 60 mph (96 kph), he said.

Meanwhile, some mountain peaks around Lake Tahoe received light snowfall Friday night, according to the National Weather Service in Reno, Nevada. Temperatures around freezing are expected again from Friday evening to Saturday

Wind sensors in two peaks west of Lake Tahoe recorded wind speeds of 75 and 104 mph (120 km/h and 167 km/h) on Friday, with the strong winds expected to last through the night before easing Saturday morning, the National Weather Service said .

The agency also issued its first freeze warning of the season Friday along the Sierra’s eastern front, from 2 a.m. to 9 a.m., from south of Carson City north through Reno to California’s Lassen, Sierra and Plumas counties, where temperatures could fall below the low level. 20s Fahrenheit (-5 Celsius).

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Dazio reported from Los Angeles.