Fire on Yerba Buena Island forces lane closures on Bay Bridge

SAN FRANCISCO -- All eastbound lanes of the Bay Bridge were closed for more than two hours on Saturday afternoon as San Francisco firefighters responded to a wind-whipped grass fire on Yerba Buena Island.

Two more eastbound lanes on the bridge, which carries Interstate 80, remained blocked by fire trucks at the scene, Capt. Justin Schorr said shortly before 5 p.m. The blaze caused significant impacts on the westbound traffic as well.

The fire, on a steep, rugged hillside with no roads and no fire hydrants, had threatened historic U.S. Coast Guard structures, he said.

The highway was closed about 2:30 p.m. as about 40 San Francisco firefighters responded from a fireboat and from the bridge. 

The fire burned on a hillside on the southwest corner of the island and grew to roughly an acre by 3:40 p.m., according to dispatch traffic from CHP.

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