“a gasoline tanker truck explosion inside one of the three tunnels in the hills above Oakland”
It’s the Caldecott Tunnel and the scorch marks are still visible all the way through as a grim reminder.
http://www.wetzoollamb.net/tours/caldecott/cald1.html
That's it. I couldn't remember the name when we lived there, let alone now.
I looked up the fire and it was very shortly before we moved back east.
A few years later we moved down here to Memphis and my folks, who were still living in the South Bay, came to visit us, that was mid-October, 1989. My dad and I were watching the pre-game stuff for the World Series when the earthquake hit.
By that time my brother and his kids had left the area but ironically my sister and her family were living in the south bay on a temp basis at the time too, so we still had folks in the middle of that. My nephew was actually out camping with a group of scouts very near Loma Prieta and there was a big search for them. They were found safe and sound with lots of supplies, so the "search party" made arrangements to bring in folks whose houses had been damaged and the scouts set up a temporary refugee center.
This event has the same unreal sense about it.