Wildfire near Pleasanton explodes to 1,007 acres; firefighter injured, evacuations ordered

In the dry hills south of Pleasanton, a fire named with quiet irony the Little Fire has grown to consume more than a thousand acres in a matter of hours, forcing families from their homes in Ruby Hill and reminding us once again that the California summer has become a season of reckoning. At least one firefighter has been injured in the effort to hold the line — a human cost that accompanies every acre lost. The blaze reflects a pattern now deeply familiar to Northern California: conditions so volatile that a single ignition can outpace the best-laid plans of those sworn to contain it.