pb notable >>9860836, >>9860886, >>9860889 EVEN THE NORCAL BAY IS GOING OFF WITH FIREWORKS

Still going strong in bay area right now because yeah, fuck you, Gavin!

‘Very busy night’ starts early for fire crews as fireworks explode all over Bay Area

Firefighters respond to more than a dozen Fourth of July fires by 10 p.m.

As the sun neared the horizon and dusk began to arrive Saturday, Fire Chief Lewis Broschard tried to speak to a small group of reporters about the dangers of fireworks. As he spoke, the familiar sound of explosives went off in the background, and a siren blared as an engine 100 yards away raced to a scene.

The leader of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District didn’t need to say much to express what it all meant.

“The steady stream of the pops and the booms,” he said, “reminds us that it’s going to be a very busy night.”

He wasn’t kidding. At 9:45 p.m., fire crews in the district were simultaneously on the scene of 14 fires, three of them involving some type of building, fire spokesman Steve Hill said. They were dispatching only a single fire engine to any non-structure fire because of the demand for service.

At least three of the fires were confirmed to have been caused by fireworks, Hill said.

Fireworks burst throughout the Bay Area on Saturday with reports in both Contra Costa and Alameda counties of unending explosions. Some of them did more than just make noise.

At one point, around 8:15 p.m., four fires burned simultaneously in Brentwood, Bay Point and Pittsburg. Crews put out all three of those. Fireworks were believed to have caused all of them, Hill said.

Fireworks may also have played a role in a vegetation fire that burned off Merle Avenue in Martinez, and a fire on Miner Avenue in San Pablo was burning at a structure, Hill said.

Crews, too, were at the scene of a grass fire off Lettia Road in San Pablo; a grass fire off Mims Road in Bay Point; and a grass fire in the area of San Marcos and Rio Verde drives in Pittsburg.

The activity was not unexpected. ConFire crews prepared for the night by bringing in extra engines and bulldozers and by putting some of their crews on 24-hour duty, Broschard said.

Crews from the East Bay Regional Parks, San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, Moraga-Orinda Fire District and East Contra Costa Fire Protection District also were prepared to provide support, as were federally overseen crews from the Concord Naval Weapons Station area.

Broschard said the fact that the Fourth of July holiday fell on a Saturday night following months of the public being forced indoors because of the COVID-19 pandemic had fire crews “anticipating it would be busier.” Broschard said the month leading up to the holiday also was a clue, with calls up 400% over the same six weeks a year ago.

On Friday, crews chased 14 fires in seven hours. Four of them — two of them damaging vehicles and the other two damaging homes — burned in Concord during a 30-minute span, Hill said. Fire crews put them all out without any injuries.

They also battled four grass fires in a 30-minute period, Hill said, as many as they might see in an entire day at this time of year.

Crews in Contra Costa County were not the only ones busy. Earlier Saturday, California Department of Forestry and Fire Management crews, along with Alameda County and Livermore-Pleasanton Fire personnel almost fully contained a blaze in the hills of Sunol that burned 100 acres. That blaze was 75% contained by 9 p.m.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/07/04/very-busy-night-starts-early-for-east-bay-fire-crews/

>>9861440

Not saying fires are good, but nothing wrong with celebrating USA with fireworks on the 4th!

‘It’s burning down the city’: Fires linked to fireworks erupt across SF, Bay Area

Grass fires — many linked to illegal Fourth of July fireworks — flared across the Bay Area on Saturday night, straining firefighter resources and leading authorities to beg on social media for the explosions to stop.

In San Francisco, a blaze chewed through 4 acres at McLaren Park, and crews scrambled to fight another fire at 50 Cargo Way in Hunters Point. The fire department tweeted about roughl 15 blazes in a single hour.

Across the bay in Contra Costa County firefighters responded to 50 fires between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. alone, a volume so extreme that by 10 p.m., they could only provide one engine for each response.

“It’s unbelievable, they’re coming so fast,” said Steve Hill, spokesman for the Contra Costa Fire Protection District. Sitting in a command vehicle on Loveridge Road in Pittsburg, he heard fireworks explode outside as more fires flared up — by 10:20 p.m., another 9 had started.

Contra Costa firefighters also responded to several fireworks injuries, Hill said, including a child who was apparently hit in the eye. Trees had exploded throughout the county, likely because fireworks scattered embers in the branches, Hill said.

“If it weren’t for the fact that we’d almost doubled our resources, we’d be out at this point,” Hill said.

The Cargo Way fire near Hunters Point, which charred a patch of wetlands next to the bay, was directly linked to illegal fireworks, according to Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter. Video from Baxter showed three acres blanketed in flame, along with numerous spot fires. Crews stood guarding a solitary structure as 4th of July fireworks crackled in the distance.

At about 9:45 p.m. firefighters saved a row of motor homes from a 5 acre fire at 1199 Thomas Ave. in the Bayview. “Cause is fireworks,” officials from the department tweeted.

“We were very efficient in being able to save multiple motor homes and homeless encampment site areas within this sidewalk area,” Baxter said, his cell phone camera careening. More fireworks burst and sparkled in the background.

“If you will, please consider not using fireworks,” Baxter said. “It’s burning down the city, it’s not nice. Let’s be nice, let’s be San Franciscans. Let’s stop this. Consider doing something else.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Fire-churns-through-four-acres-in-McLaren-Park-15386762.php