Fireworks suspected in East Bay fires
Fireworks used in Fourth of July celebrations across the East Bay resulted in dozens of fires that burned in grassy fields and damaged some houses, officials said Wednesday.
It also appears to have played a part in at least two injuries.
Contra Costa Fire Protection District spokesperson Steve Hill said Wednesday morning that the district responded to about 60 fires overall between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, about 50 of them caused by fireworks.
“That's about a 25-percent increase from a year ago,” Hill said. “And as usual, we had one bad injury from them, too.”
A person suffered a hand injury from the use of explosives, Hill said; more details about that incident were not immediately available.
Contra Costa Fire crews also confronted a house fire in the 1500 block of Fieldcrest Drive in Pleasant Hill — in that case, neighbors reported an explosion followed by a fire at the home, according to the agency.
Already in Pleasant Hill this year, a 14-year-old boy suffered a severe hand injury when he picked up and lit an illegal explosive that had been left on a middle school campus. Authorities
said a 15-year-old Pittsburg boy later admitted to leaving the device.
Crews also put out a house fire in Antioch in which two people and a dog escaped. A three-acre fire in a grassy field on Holub Lane in Antioch also was extinguished, according to Con Fire.
Oakland Fire spokesperson Michael Hunt said his department's crews responded to 52 fires, including one at a homeless encampment and two others involving recreational vehicles. He said that one person suffered a hand injury from an explosive, and that crews responded to 268 calls overall, about a 20 percent increase from 2022.
He said Oakland firefighters put out about 20
small vegetation fires, none bigger than a roughly 10-foot- by-10-foot blaze at Crest Avenue and Fontaine Street.
“We came out pretty unscathed overall,” Hunt said. “It was definitely an active night as usual for fireworks activity, unfortunately, but the impact on structures and vegetation was minimal.”
The Alameda County Fire Department responded to two fires Tuesday night that were thought to have been caused by fireworks, according to spokesperson Cheryl Hurd.
The first was a structure fire reported at 10:23 p.m. on the 35000 block of Begonia Street in Union City, where the homeowner, who was previously displaced by
a fire in March, said he saw embers from fireworks in the air. Those embers were suspected to have started a fire in the backyard of the home. Firefighters battled the flames for about an hour and a half, eventually clearing the scene at 2 a.m.