For more than a week, Bay Area fire and safety officials warned residents of fireworks danger and urged them not to use any on the Fourth of July. On Friday, officials were busy compiling the damage created by those who lit fuses as the sky turned dark.
“We hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” Contra Costa Fire Protection District spokesperson Capt. Chris Toler said. “It went as a typical Fourth of July tends to go. The fireworks started going off about 8:30 p.m. and we were busy from then until about 1:30 a.m. It stuck to the script.”
Bay Area fire officials said fireworks were suspected to be the cause of a fire in Antioch that forced the evacuations of residents on a small court, as well as a blaze that burned near a professional fireworks show and golf course in San Jose.
They also were responsible for at least one injury in Contra Costa County, as well as an injury to a teenager in Berkeley, authorities said.
The local fires burned as state fire crews continued to attack larger wildfires in Northern California. Firefighters reached 46% containment on the Thompson Fire in Butte County by Friday morning, a blaze that Cal Fire said had burned 3,879 acres. They also gained 5% containment on the French Fire in Mariposa County, which Cal Fire said had consumed 843 acres by Friday morning.
The fire in Antioch burned at least two acres and forced the evacuation of residents on Lotus Court after initial fears the fire might reach homes in the neighborhood. Fire crews went door-to-door to get people out of their homes.
“Once we were confident in the behavior of the fire, we were able to get them back into their homes,” ConFire Capt. Victor Daniel said.
Daniel said investigators have not announced an official cause as illegal fireworks “but anytime you have vegetation fires on the Fourth of July, that’s the first thing you suspect.”
Firefighters in Contra Costa County also put out vegetation fires near North Parkside Drive in Pittsburg, Shore Road in Bay Point, Calaveras Drive in Bay Point and Michele Drive in Martinez.
The region’s other major fire on the Fourth of July happened in South San Jose, where a vegetation fire in the foothills east of Almaden Lake rose to a Tier 2 response, according to the San Jose Fire Department. Crews responded to that fire about 9:55 p.m.
Crews controlled that blaze in about three hours. It burned between five and 10 acres, officials said. It did not injure anyone or destroy any structures.
Firefighters had to contest with challenges accessing that fire, partly because attendees at a professional fireworks show at Almaden Lake were leaving the show, officials said. San Jose police helped with traffic control and Cal Fire crews aided San Jose firefighters.
The blaze burned away from homes in the area but toward the Boulder Ridge Golf Club on Old Quarry Road, officials said. It threatened several utility poles and power lines, and firefighters focused on preventing damage to those to keep power to that neighborhood from being affected.
San Jose firefighters also extinguished a fire near State Street and Pacific Avenue, according to fire officials. Crews contained the fire to two acres.
In Alameda County, fire crews put out fires started by illegal fireworks at a home and two garages in the 9400 block of Hillside Street in Oakland, officials said. That fire started about 7:50 p.m. on Thursday but there was no word Friday about how badly those structures had been damaged, if at all.
In Berkeley, police and fire crews responded about 9:50 p.m. to the 1800 block of Fairview Street. According to police, a juvenile suffered a significant injury to his hand when a firework exploded as he held it. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital.
A second juvenile suffered minor injuries but did not go to a hospital, police said.
