The victim has been identified as Alberto Santana-Silva, a 21-year-old male from Fremont who is not affiliated with UC Berkeley, according to UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode.

UCPD officers responded around 5:38 a.m. to calls regarding shots fired near signpost 16, DeCoulode said.

Upon arriving at the scene, UCPD officers found the victim with gunshot wounds. He was next to his car, which was several yards away from where the shooting occurred. He was pronounced deceased at the scene by Berkeley Fire Department.

DeCoulode said a number of people were in the area when a disagreement or argument occurred, and Santana-Silva intervened and stopped the disagreement. A few people left, but within roughly 20 minutes, an unidentified person came back, walked up to Santana-Silva’s car and shot him multiple times.

According to DeCoulode, the investigation is ongoing.

Daphne Chen is the lead city government reporter. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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At approximately 2 a.m., Berkeley Fire Department and Berkeley Police Department responded to a medical call at a home in the 1200 block of Dwight Way. Soon afterward, shots were fired from inside the residence, according to Officer Jennifer Coats, spokesperson for BPD.

“The officers were responding when BPD reported shots fired inside,” Coats stated in the email. “One of the firefighters was hit, and received a non-life threatening injury, that did not required hospitalization.”

BPD officers were able to make contact with the shooter, an 88-year-old man, who was then taken into custody and sent to a local hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. His name is currently being withheld.

“BPD works very closely with BFD and we are very grateful that the firefighter was not hurt more seriously,” Coats said in the email.

Andy Nguyen is the lead crime reporter. Contact him at anguyen@dailycal.org
and follow him on Twitter @Andy_Truc.

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The man was being treated by firefighters for a medical condition in his home on the 1200 block of Dwight Way at around 1:45 a.m. Monday. It was then when he began allegedly firing a handgun, grazing a firefighter with a bullet, the Chronicle states.

The man was then taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation. The injured firefighter was treated at the scene and hospitalization was not required.

Jaehak Yu is a news editor. Contact him at jyu@dailycal.org.

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Berkeley Fire Department’s Community Emergency Response Team organized the annual drill to promote community preparedness in the event of a disaster. The one-day event will include light search-and-rescue CERT classes and neighborhood group exercises.

“It can be an individual, community, business — it’s open to everybody,” said Aaron Lee, assistant fire chief at Berkeley Fire Department. “Last year, we had 900 participants. We’re trying to double that.”

The event, which will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., will include a meeting at noon at the Frances Albrier Community Center to go over disaster preparation. The event also urges citizens to register for the Berkeley Emergency Notification System, a system that calls residents with alerts about city emergencies.

This year’s drill will focus on fire prevention and damage assessment, according to Matt Mitchell, a board member of the Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association. Neighborhood groups will participate in setting up a simulated command center, sending people to the fire department, checking home fire extinguishers and first-aid kits and performing simulated checks for building damage or injuries.

“When the earthquake hits, (people can) go around the neighborhood to see if everyone’s OK, put out the fires if they can,” Mitchell said.

CERT and the fire department have been spreading the word with banners around the city, sending thousands of fliers home with students and handing out pamphlets at senior centers, farmers markets and the BART station. Mitchell said that the city has had other smaller emergency drills in the past, but this is the best outreach attempt he has seen yet.

“This year, we’ve put out a greater effort,” Mitchell said.

The City Council has also been meeting to discuss how to spend funds that go toward spreading awareness about disaster preparedness and providing supply kits to caches around the city, according to Councilmember Jesse Arreguin.

“(Council members) are not just policymakers (but also) outreachers and community organizers,” Arreguin said.

Arreguin highlighted the lack of preparedness in West and South Berkeley due to the fact that emergency caches are predominantly distributed in the Berkeley Hills. He added that he and other council members are currently trying to let community members know about the citywide drill by sending out alerts on email lists and working with existing disaster-preparedness groups.

“By increasing funding, by doing more outreach and providing more research, we can do a better job of making sure our community is prepared in the event of a national disaster,” Arreguin said.

Contact Tara Hurley at thurley@dailycal.org.

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The fire, which occurred on the 1700 block of Blake Street, started when stray embers from a cigarette landed on recyclable papers on the front porch. Residents Phil Catalfo and Michelle Lerager were not home, but their son Peter Catalfo was. Berkeley Fire Department arrived minutes after receiving a call. By the time of the team’s arrival, however, three neighbors had contained the fire with garden hoses, said Berkeley Fire Department Interim Deputy Chief Avery Webb.

“By the time I got back here, the neighbors were very concerned and people offered us food and a place to stay,” Phil Catalfo said. “The neighbors have just been beyond fabulous.”

The three neighbors who helped put out the fire were Craig Knudsen, Justin Weber-Stover and Jason Williams, who have all lived in the neighborhood for at least several years, according to Phil Catalfo. Although the intervention of concerned neighbors helped control the fire, Webb said the fire department usually advises against firefighting efforts by citizens.

“When we respond to an incident, we have training, safety equipment and knowledge about what goes on around there, and we are usually reluctant to have people trying to extinguish fires themselves,” Webb said. “We are concerned that people would do something to get harmed and sometimes they might do something that would make the problem bigger.”

Although the fire department estimates roughly $75,000 in damages, Catalfo said he and his insurance company are at least a week away from knowing a more accurate estimate.

Phil Catalfo and his wife Michelle Lerager have resided in the neighborhood for 33 years and in their current home for 26 years. Catalfo is a “semiretired” journalist and writer who also plays in two bands as a hobby. Lerager is a nurse at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center.

Contact Yvonne Ng at ygn@dailycal.org.

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On March 23, Rita Sahai, a renowned musician, and Debra Pryor, former fire chief for the Berkeley Fire Department, will be honored for their unique achievements and giving back to Berkeley and the greater community.

“(The award) is for achievements based over their entire career and how those achievements benefit their community within Alameda County,” said Ludmyrna Lopez, administrative analyst for the Hall of Fame.

Pryor will be inducted for the nontraditional careers category while Sahai was inducted for the culture and art category. The induction ceremony later this month will raise funds for local charities, and one young woman in high school will receive a scholarship.

“We are underscoring the need to provide leadership and examples of leadership to younger women,” Lopez said. “I think they’re both amazing women that add to the diversity of Alameda County that have demonstrated leadership in culture and arts of the region.”

Pryor has a history as a trailblazer within the city of Berkeley. When she began her career in 1985, Pryor was the first female firefighter in the city’s history. She would later ascend the ranks to become the city’s first ever female fire chief in 2004.

For Sahai, the award came during a difficult time. About two years ago, she was hit by a car and suffered injuries from which she is still recovering. Since then, she also lost both her parents.

“I was dealing with too much, but (this award) was like some relief,” Sahai said.

Sahai, who began singing and composing music as a young girl in India, has since made what was a young passion into a lifelong career. She has lived in Berkeley for more than 35 years and has made her mark on the community as a music teacher.

“I am part of the Berkeley community,” Sahai said. “I love Berkeley. I don’t want to settle anywhere else. I’m a Berkeleyan.”

Sahai, now a renowned singer in her own right, has recorded with Grammy award-winning artists and performed around the world. She said she was inspired by other woman singers and has found success by following her dreams.

“Women have to work extra hard to achieve anything,” Sahai said. “Don’t give up. Keep at it, and you will achieve your goals.”

Contact Tara Hurley at thurley@dailycal.org.

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The department was called to the residence, located at 1177 Keith Ave., after neighbors reported seeing smoke, according to Deputy Fire Chief Avery Webb. Upon arriving at the scene, firefighters found the residents — a family of three — already evacuated. No injuries were reported.

According to Webb, the fire started on the third floor and seemed to have spread throughout the house.

By around 12:15 p.m., authorities had contained the fire. But due to continuous “flare-ups,” deputies expected to remain at the scene for the rest of the day, Webb said.

Webb said that some neighbors were evacuated as well but have since been notified that it is safe for them to return to their homes.

Contact Alex Berryhill at aberryhill@dailycal.org.

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Deputy Chief Gil Dong will take the helm until a permanent chief is hired.

Pryor was Berkeley’s first female fire chief and the second African American fire chief in the nation, according to a bio released by the city of Berkeley.

Before Pryor joined Berkeley’s fire department in 1985, she worked for the city of Berkeley as a clerk. Pryor became Berkeley’s first female fire fighter and worked as as a fire captain, department training officer and assistant fire chief, among other positions.

She received a master’s degree in public administration from California State University at Hayward in 2001.

In 2002, Pryor served as the fire marshal and then the departmental operations chief at Palo Alto Fire Department before returning to Berkeley when she was selected as the city’s fire chief in 2004.

Contact Gautham Thomas at gthomas@dailycal.org.

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There is forensic evidence that a now-terminated employee of Advanced Data Processing Inc. — the company that handles billing for Berkeley’s fire department and ambulance services — accessed client information with the intention of providing it to a tax fraud ring based out of Tampa, Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong said.

The information accessed — and in some cases disclosed to an unauthorized third party — may include names, social security numbers and dates of birth, according to a press release from ADPI. No medical information was accessed or disclosed.

Thirteen suspects have been arrested for their involvement with the ring responsible for the Berkeley information theft, according to a press release from Tampa Bay Police Department.

The tax fraud ring that accepted the information from the ADPI employee is suspected of filing fraudulent tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service, according to the ADPI release.

The Internal Revenue Service declined to comment.

The fire department initially sent out 168 letters notifying patients of the possible access before new forensic evidence prompted it to send a second round of letters to an additional 763 customers in conjunction with ADPI, Dong said.

ADPI has now taken steps to strengthen its internal security procedures by inviting outside auditors and experts to observe its operation, Dong said.

“It takes an intentional act to take the information,” Dong said. “They had an employee who was involved in taking that information. They were able to go through and look at forensic evidence to see what computers had been accessed.”

Despite this breach, Berkeley Fire Department has no plans to change its practices.

“We use an ambulance billing vendor because they have the expertise in filing for Medicare and medical and health insurance reimbursement,” Dong said. “We don’t have the internal expertise, and we have been using billing vendors for over 20 years without incident.”

All patients affected by the breach have been offered a year of free credit monitoring by ADPI, and the company is cooperating with the IRS in its investigation.

Contact D.J. Sellarole dsellarole@dailycal.org.

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Fitch remembers sitting at home on the night of Nov. 18 and receiving alerts from his pager as the fire continued to grow. Beginning with light smoke issuing from a mechanical room in the basement shortly before 9 p.m., the blaze grew to become one of the biggest fires in the city’s history. In the wake of the six-hour fire, only a shell remained of the historic five-story Sequoia Apartment building and two popular restaurants.

The Haste Street fire was estimated to have caused $5 million in total damage, according to data from Berkeley Fire Department. In 2010, the fire department reported a little more than $1.5 million in total damage — far less than the total damage caused by the Haste Street fire alone.

In the last three years, only one fire has come close to the level of damage of the Haste Street fire. A total loss of $1.35 million was reported after a partial roof collapse at a Benvenue Avenue home last month. The value of the damage caused by this fire was only a little more than one-fourth the total of the Haste Street fire, according to the data.

But the damage caused was only one aspect of what made the Haste Street fire unique among the incidents Fitch has witnessed. According to the incident investigation report released Jan. 4, the fire originated within the elevator mechanical room, although the exact point of ignition and root cause could not be determined.

“Usually, it’s human cause that starts the fire,” Fitch said. “Electrical problems are more rare.”

Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong said some of the more common causes of fires in residential structures include unattended cooking, improper disposal of smoking materials or unattended use of candles.

But according to Fitch, fire response accounts for only a small portion of the department’s day-to-day activities. The 2005 to 2011 National Fire Protection Association Analysis Report states that the department responds to about 285 fires a year — a very small portion of the department’s 11,809 average total incidents.

The department spends more than 65 percent of its time responding to emergency medical requests including ambulance, EMS and rescue, according to data from the report.

“The BFD is primarily an ambulance service that is sometimes called upon to fight a fire,” said Matt Mitchell, a former commissioner on the Berkeley Disaster and Fire Safety Commission, in an email.

This ambulance service is supported by additional funds approved by voters in 2008. Due to the passage of Measure GG, all of Berkeley’s ambulances are now equipped with advanced life-support equipment, according to Mitchell.

Despite the magnitude of the Haste Street fire, none of the building’s 68 tenants was injured. This is consistent with the city’s record — over the past five years, fire-related injuries and deaths have remained low.

“We are very progressive with fire and life safety prevention,” Fitch wrote in an email.

Although injuries ranged between zero and 12 from 2005 to 2011, the department has consistently reported at most one fatality per year since 2005 from residential or structural fires. Berkeley falls slightly below California’s average deaths from fire, with a statewide average of five and one-half deaths per million population, according to data provided by the U.S. Fire Administration.

In June, the department’s first fire-related death of the year took place after an accidental house fire on Lorina Street killed a 26-year-old woman and injured a resident.

Overall, the total number of Berkeley Fire Department’s calls is consistent with an area of its population, according to statistics provided by Firehouse Magazine.

But over the years, the department has seen a decrease in fires and an increase in emergency response calls, which Fitch attributes to an aggressive effort to educate the public on fire safety. In the end, however, Fitch said fires are always unexpected and that when the department responds, it needs to be ready for an array of situations.

“We try to manage chaos,” Fitch said. “When we go into a scene, it is someone’s worst day of their life.”

Fitch said he knew the Haste Street fire would be a significant event as he watched the flames grow. Even today, the lasting effects are still visible on Telegraph Avenue.

“You don’t see fires like that often,” he said.

Chloe Hunt covers crime. Contact her at cthunt@dailycal.org.

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