SAN FRANCISCO — A fire spread in the parched hills of the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday afternoon, growing to 1,000 acres by the evening and prompting evacuation orders for thousands of residents, according to fire officials.

The blaze, named the Little fire, was burning dry hillsides in Sunol, California, a rural area more than 30 miles southeast of downtown San Francisco. More than 4,800 residents in the nearby city of Pleasanton were ordered to evacuate as of 6 p.m., according to a New York Times analysis.

By 10 p.m., the area covered by evacuation orders had shrunk to three zones in Pleasanton, including the Ruby Hill Golf Club, said Battalion Chief Raul Medina of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The evacuation order for the golf course community was lifted overnight.

Evacuation advisories, which caution people to be prepared to leave, remained in place for four other zones of Pleasanton.

Medina said that 10% of the fire had been contained and that firefighters would work overnight to take advantage of cooler weather and slowing winds. A helicopter had been dispatched to help combat the blaze, he said. He added that a firefighter had sustained a minor injury.

Earlier, Cal Fire had said that firefighters were being hampered by limited access and hot weather, with temperatures soaring past 90 degrees. The agency and the Alameda County Fire Department were battling the blaze on the ground, along with tankers and helicopters in the air.

The fire was burning near a decommissioned nuclear facility. The facility’s owner, NorthStar, said that it was evaluating the incident.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Soumya Karlamangla and Francesca Regalado/CalFire
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