SAN FRANCISCO — A fast-moving fire fueled by high winds damaged at least seven homes Friday in a hillside neighborhood in the city of Oakland, where about 500 people were ordered to evacuate, officials said.

No injuries were reported, but Mayor Sheng Thao said at least six homes were damaged and at least one was a total loss.

Fire Chief Damon Covington said that around 1:30 p.m., calls came in reporting a fire outside a home in the Oakland hills. Crews arrived as the inferno grew rapidly with winds ranging from calm breezes to 40 mph (64 kph) gusts in red flag conditions.

“The wind was blowing,” Covington said.

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

The fire charred the eucalyptus trees, which spread the fire as flames jumped the sides of the roadway, Covington said. In three hours, it grew to 13 acres (about 5.3 hectares). Around 4 p.m., crews managed to stop him from advancing, although many firefighters continued to fight.

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

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

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

A California utility cut power to 19 northern and central counties as a major “diablo wind” — known in fall for its hot, dry gusts — increased the risk of wildfires .

The fire in the Oakland Hills burned a day before Oct. 19, the anniversary of a 1991 fire that destroyed nearly 3,000 homes and killed 25 people.

Smoke was visible Friday 2 to 3 miles (3 to 5 kilometers) away. Fire trucks and ambulances struggled to weave through traffic in the westbound lanes of the highway, their sirens blaring to force vehicles out of the way as they rushed toward the blaze. The traffic frustrated some drivers enough that they left the road on the on-ramps, while others drove onto the shoulder of the highway. Secondary streets also remained heavily saturated.

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

The fire was reported around 3 p.m. in the hills of Hacienda Heights, where firefighters on the ground and in the air were trying to prevent the 5-acre (2-hectare) fire from reaching neighboring homes, the department said . No evacuations were ordered.

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

During a diablo wind, the air is so dry that relative humidity levels drop, drying out vegetation and preparing it to burn. The name – “diablo” means “devil” in Spanish – is informally applied to a warm wind that blows near the San Francisco area from the interior toward the coast as high pressure develops over the west.

The “diablo wind” is expected to bring sustained winds reaching 35 mph (56 kph) in many areas, with possible gusts exceeding 65 mph (104 kph) along mountain peaks, according to the National Weather Service. Strong winds are expected to persist through part of the weekend.

In total, about 20,000 customers could be temporarily without 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, hot and gusty northerly winds -east winds that blow from the interior of Southern California toward the coast and offshore. Winds move in the opposite direction to the normal land current that carries moist air from the Pacific to the region.

Winds around greater Los Angeles won’t be as strong as in the north, with gusts between 25 and 40 mph possible in the mountains and foothills, said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the Weather Service’s Los Angeles regional office. Angeles.

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

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

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

The service also issued its first frost warning of the season along the Eastern Sierra Front, in effect from 2 a.m. to 9 a.m. Friday, from south of Carson City north through Reno to the Lassen, Sierra and Plumas counties in California, where temperatures could dip into the low temperatures. 20s Fahrenheit (-5 Celsius).

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Dazio reported from Los Angeles.