It’s a ‘perfect storm’ for fires as use of fireworks explodes
Amid what one fire official calls a “perfect storm” — the earliest fire season ever, widespread drought, bone-dry vegetation and people eager to celebrate the first holiday since COVID-19 restrictions lifted — the danger sparks each night just as the sun dips below the horizon.
Boom! Crack-crack! BOOM! (Pause). Crack-crack-crackcrack-crack! Pfffffff. BOOM!”
Fireworks — even the socalled “safe and sane” variety — are illegal almost everywhere in the Bay Area. But that has done little to stop their rising use in the days leading up to a crescendo on the Fourth of July.
This year, fire officials are more nervous than ever.
Just consider the backdrop this year. California and the
Bay Area are again dealing with a drought that adds to the fire threat when the weather gets hot. There also will be no restrictions on gatherings.
“We’ve had hardly any rain,” spokesman Steve Hill of the Contra Costa Fire Protection District said. “People are getting out more. We’re seeing fewer sanctioned fireworks displays because of the combination of the weather conditions and not really knowing where we were going to be with COVID. And we’re hearing anecdotally about incidents of illegal fireworks use much earlier than we did last year, when we were right in the middle of COVID.”
This year, fireworks exhibitions will return in some cities such as Antioch, Concord and Gilroy. The A’s also will host a fireworks display after their home game on Friday.
Fire officials throughout the region say they will be on high alert on the Fourth, with emergency operation centers to be in use in Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo and possibly Santa Clara counties. Many jurisdictions asked residents to cut down their weeds for fire abatement earlier than ever, and crews could be stationed in high-risk areas depending on how bad the fire risk is on Independence Day.
They also are emphasizing that even if safe-andsane fireworks are bought legally — Dublin, Union City and Newark in Alameda County; Pacifica and San Bruno in San Mateo County; and Gilroy in Santa Clara County allow them — they can’t be brought back and used in another city.
Across the Bay Area, communities also are giving law enforcement a bit more oversight and hiking fines for anyone setting off fireworks. In Contra Costa County, a new ordinance allows law enforcement to cite property or boat owners who let fireworks be used on their property in the unincorporated part of the county, and citizens can be fined up to $500 depending on the number of offenses. Richmond Mayor Tom Butt has offered residents a $2,500 reward for reporting those who allow fireworks to be used should the users be fined or convicted.
In unincorporated San Mateo County, anybody hosting a fireworks display can now be fined $1,000 under a new ordinance, up from $100. The city of Oakley, in Contra Costa County, and the city of San Jose are also fining residents up to $1,000.
The new deterrents come after a 2020 Fourth of July season that fire officials from throughout the state said was as bad as they can remember. Contra Costa County saw a “prolific” outbreak of illegal fireworks use, Fire Chief Lewis Broschard said. He added that the types of illegal fireworks being used and the frequency with which they were being used “was unprecedented.”
In San Jose, the South Bay’s hot spot for illegal fireworks, last year saw a “huge spike,” fire spokeswoman Erica Ray said. The city has rolled out education campaigns and doubled fines for first-time violators.
Deputy Director Daniel Berlant of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the state also has seen an uptick in the use of illegal fireworks over the past several years but that the problem became especially bad during the pandemic.
“It seems,” he said of 2020, “like every community in the state became a war zone during the Fourth of July.”
Berlant said he hopes the state’s June 15 reopening will encourage more cities to host sponsored fireworks displays, which will give people an outlet to enjoy fireworks in a safe manner. But it might not be enough to drive numbers down.
The lack of shows also leaves suppliers with an excess, and fire officials worry some of that leftover supply will end up on the black market and in the hands of people who aren’t supposed to have them.
The state seized about 100,000 pounds of illegal fireworks in one week earlier this month, Berlant said. In a normal year, police and fire departments confiscate a little more than 200,000 pounds of illegal fireworks.
In San Mateo County, authorities seized approximately 15,000 pounds of illegal fireworks on Wednesday and Thursday in an operation they said also spread to Santa Clara, Alameda and San Francisco counties.
ConFire investigators also made arrests in Pittsburg, Antioch and Concord between June 17 and 21, with investigators seizing 90 pounds of illegal fireworks in the Concord incident.
Fire crews held a demonstration last month to show how quickly a roof can go up from an illegal firework that smolders, but there have been plenty of real-life events in the past weeks. Illegal fireworks caused an apartment fire that displaced 40 people in Antioch and another fire on the balcony of a second-story apartment in San Pablo.
A four-alarm fire in Vallejo that caused evacuations in Crockett also likely started from illegal fireworks, officials said.
“It’s a dangerous activity regardless of what the conditions are like,” Oakland Fire spokesman Michael Hunt said. “These conditions are uniquely bad. … We’ve dodged a bullet so far.”
Still, the barrage of fireworks isn’t likely to end anytime soon.
“I can say I live in the downtown area,” Ray said. “And I am hearing fireworks nightly.”