Grizzly Fire at Berkeley Hills 70 percent contained
The Grizzly Fire — which started Wednesday afternoon at the intersection of Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Fish Ranch Road in the Berkeley Hills — is currently 70 percent contained, according to East Bay Regional Park District Fire Department Interim Fire Chief John Swanson.
Swanson said the fire remains at 20 acres and currently around 12 firefighters from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, remain on the scene “mopping up” the perimeters of the fire. The East Bay Regional Park District Fire Department will assume patrol of the fire at Berkeley Hills later this weekend, according to Swanson.
UCPD Sgt. Bill Kasiske said there were no updates to the ongoing investigation for determining the cause of the Grizzly Fire. UCPD Sgt. Sabrina Reich told The Daily Californian in an email Thursday that UCPD was investigating the hills fire as a potential arson.
UCPD arrested a suspect Wednesday afternoon for an alleged incident involving arson that occurred on Grizzly Peak Boulevard at 1:07 p.m., according to UCPD arrest logs.
The alleged incident took place one minute after Berkeley Police Department and Berkeley Fire Department received a report of “a column of smoke and flames” in the direction of the Berkeley Hills at 1:06 p.m.
About 200 firefighters from nine local fire departments responded to the Grizzly Fire on Wednesday. The fire led to a number of buildings at campus properties — including the Berkeley Lab, the Space Sciences Laboratory and the Lawrence Hall of Science — to be evacuated as a precautionary measure.
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Contact Atira Nair at anair@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter at @atirastar.