Officials Suspect Arson as Cause of Oakland Fire

As the death toll in last week’s Oakland-Berkeley Hills fire climbed to 25, investigators said Tuesday the blaze that destroyed more than 3,000 homes “may have been purposely set.”

A primitive barbecue pit found near where arson investigators believe the blaze broke out is the focus of the continuing investigation, Fire Marshal James McMullen told a news conference held in front of Oakland Fire Station No. 1.

He said the pit was found at a construction site not far from the Hiller Highlands condominium complex that was destroyed in the fire.

“The pit was a hole in the ground, something someone dug to cook in, not a portable pit,” he said.

McMullen supported earlier statements made by Oakland Fire Chief P. Lamont Ewell who said the fire was of “suspicious origin.”

Leigh N. Ortenburger, one of America’s best-known mountaineers, has been identified as the fire’s 25th fatality.

Ortenburger, 62, of Palo Alto was visiting two longtime friends and climbing associates, Gail and Alfred Baxter, at their Berkeley home when the fire swept the area Oct. 20.

The three attempted to escape in cars. Gail Baxter was burned to death. Alfred Baxter survived with severe burns, apparently by falling into a stream of water from a broken main. Ortenburger was listed as missing until Sunday, when his body was identified by the Alameda County coroner’s office.

Ortenburger, a mathematician for GTE, began climbing in Wyoming’s Tetons in the late 1940s and had returned to Grand Teton National Park each summer for the last 40 years, friends and relatives said. Thousands of American climbers know Ortenburger through his climber’s guide to the Teton Range, published in the 1950s and updated several times.

A completely revised Teton guide, which Ortenburger had worked on in recent years and which was scheduled for publication next year, contains descriptions of more than 1,200 climbing routes on Teton peaks.

Meanwhile, the well-known art collection of Robert Shimshak and Marion Brenner, earlier believed destroyed in the fire, was saved when the fire stopped two houses away, Shimshak and Brenner said.