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In 2 hours at the start of the large Berkeley fire, 2 other smoky blazes had begun 9 miles north in grassy hillside area above El Sobrante and El Cerrito. 4 fire departments responded to battle the wind whipped flames, which for a time threatened several homes.

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Highway patrol spokesman confirmed that the fires appeared to have been set and that though they had descriptions of several possible suspects, they had made no arrests. Borate bombers laid heavy lines of retardant around the fires which served to contain the flames and save threatened homes. I gather

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most of the fire here in the hills of El Sobrante is all, uh, away from home areas. Is that true? This section is, yeah. The, uh, other fire on the north side, uh, there's homes involved right now. Chief, uh, do you have any idea how any

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of this started at this time? Probably people. There was speculation that there may be arsons involved considering the uh fact that there was no other explanation that would appear. Right. Very likely. Unlike the major East Bay blaze, these smaller fires did not destroy homes. Small outbuildings were

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burned, but damage overall was minor. A check of all other fires indicates only one person reported injured: a volunteer fireman who suffered smoke inhalation. For Eyewitness News, Steve Huss reporting.