Illegal Fireworks Rattle Nerves; Light Up Bay Area Skies
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- While thousands enjoyed the beauty of official July 4th shows from San Francisco's waterfront to San Jose's Discovery Meadow Wednesday night, the skies above neighborhoods across the Bay Area were also aglow with the explosions of illegal fireworks.
The wild night kept local police and fire departments on the move. In Oakland, police said Thursday they had made 5 arrests and handed out 56 citations for the use of illegal fireworks over the last 24 hours.
It's a wonder there weren't more as helicopter video shot Wednesday night shows the Oakland skyline ablaze with dozens of large fireworks exploding across the city.
Meanwhile, San Jose officials had to deal with large house parties, a grassfire and a sideshow with fireworks exploding above it.
As she stood on a hill overlooking the city early Wednesday evening, Maia Trinh was amazed at the dozens of illegal fireworks being launched into the sky.
"The view is just amazing you know," she said.
But the beauty was lost on San Jose Fire's Mitch Matlow.
"We gotta stop the fireworks," Matlow said.
Frustrated with past enforcement efforts, city officials this year launched a website where residents could easily report illegal fireworks use. Matlow said there had already been nearly 700 online complaints.
"Before we turned on the online tool this year, we'd already issued 50 $500 citations," he said.
In Newark, a 28-year-old man lost a finger and part of a second one in an illegal fireworks accident. The incident was reported at 10:05 p.m. in the 5200 block of Dupont Avenue, Division Chief Bonnie Terra said.
The explosion of the illegal firework caused the full amputation of one of the man's fingers and the partial amputation of another, Terra said.
San Francisco police were seeking a driver who allegedly threw fireworks at a woman as she was standing on a corner in San Francisco's Panhandle
neighborhood.
Officers responded around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday to Fulton Street and Masonic Avenue after learning of an aggravated assault there.
The victim, a 20-year-old woman, was standing at the corner when a male driver pulled up in a sedan and threw fireworks at her. The fireworks apparently went off, causing a blast injury to the woman's left foot, according to police.
Meanwhile, Pittsburg police said they responded to over 150 firework complaint calls on Wednesday, confusicating bins full of illegal fireworks and handing out numerous citations.
In the North Bay nerves are still frayed in the aftermath of last October's killer wildfires. Still Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, Petaluma and Cloverdale allowed the legal sale and use of fireworks, other communities did not.
In the Home Depot parking lot in Rohnert Park, dozens of families were setting off fireworks.
"Everybody just parks and it gets to a point where we have to light them all," said Derek Billy.
"We like to have a good time out here and celebrate the birth of our country," added Neil Hayes.
But in nearby Santa Rosa every boom of an illegal firework jangled the nerves of residents like Traci Champion.
"There's dry grass everywhere," she told KPIX 5. "Any sparkler could start anything. You never know. It's not worth taking the risk with what everybody's been through in this county."
