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Several fires spread across the Bay Area on Sunday, pushed west by historic gusts of wind, from east Contra Costa County early this morning into Solano County.
The first four fires burned back to back from around 3 a.m. into the afternoon in the Oakley, Clayton, and Bethel Island areas, one of which prompted police and fire department officials to briefly evacuate residents. The earliest fire started on Gateway Road in Bethel Island, followed by fires on Cypress and Bethel Island roads, Cypress and Broadway in Oakley and one on Leon Drive off of Marsh Creek Road, according to East Contra Costa Fire Protection District officials.
By 9:30 a.m., three of the four fires were 100 percent contained and the one on Leon Drive — which grew to 30 acres — was 50 percent contained, officials said. Residents of the area surrounding Summer Lake in Oakley were briefly evacuated from their homes during the fires.
The evacuation was ordered around 7 a.m. for people who live between Sandmouth Boulevard and Bethel Island Road. By 8:30 a.m., the order was lifted, East Contra Costa Fire Protection District officials said.
Later in the morning, the Glen Cove fire broke out in Vallejo on the north side of the strait near a primarily residential area on the east side of I-80. That fire then jumped I-80, reaching the campus of the California State University Maritime Academy. An evacuation order issued for the area was lifted just hours after hundreds of Crockett residents were told to flee.
Hours later, another fire — dubbed the Sky Fire — broke out on the south side of the strait in the hills of Crockett. The flames that broke out near Commings Skyway and I-80 in northwest Contra Costa County had grown to 150 acres by noon Sunday, according to Cal Fire. Crockett residents who live south of Pomona Street, west of Crockett Blvd and east of Highway 80 were ordered to evacuate by the county’s Fire Protection District and given the all-clear before 1 p.m.
Cummings Skyway has been closed at Crockett Blvd, according to the California Highway Patrol.