East Bay firefighters warn of illegal fireworks ahead of 4th of July

Despite the warnings, and laws against them in most of the Bay Area, people are going to light off illegal fireworks for the Fourth of July.

They’re going to come to a bombing crescendo over the next 24 hours and fire officials worry they might also start uncontrollable fires.

The community in Richmond hosted a solution Monday -- a safe fireworks show over the Bay.

“The number of people using them, cause a number of fires at the same time, which thins out our resources and makes us less capable of having a full, effective response to individual fires,” said Captain George Laing, of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.

The noises alone can cause panic attacks and trigger flashbacks and anxiety for people suffering from PTSD.

They can also be destructive and deadly when they explode on dry hillsides, especially in areas like Richmond's Wildcat Canyon and Alvarado Park.

This year’s wet winter and spring led to a heavy blanket of noxious weeds and wild grasses on the often-windy urban interphase area. 

“It’s just falling apart, even though the humidity is probably at 70% right now. Still, this is all ready to go,” said Laing.

Laing said that like so many of the East Bay’s windy hillsides, one firework exploding in the weeds and grasses will likely quickly spread to dry underbrush, dead oak trees and oily eucalyptus trees and put everyone in danger.

It might even be more dangerous this year because the wet winter and spring led to healthy and thick vegetation everywhere – which is now dried.

“There’s a heavy growth of these fuels, and because this dense growth of fuels is so easily ignited, fireworks are an exceptional danger to the weeds,” said Laing.

He added that responding firefighters chasing down dozens of fireworks fires across the county will also be in danger.                                       

Witnesses heard fireworks exploding everywhere before a Pittsburg home went up in flames July 5 last year.

“I mean they were all around us going off,” said a witness.

Laing said he hopes for the best but expects more of the same this year.

“We have, every year, reported hundreds throughout the country, hundreds of injuries, hundreds of fires, hundreds of lost structures. The consequences are severe," he said.

Fire and law enforcement agencies across the county work jointly to enforce the fireworks laws but they said that sadly, in the face of those severe consequences, some people refuse to heed the warnings.