Many Oakland residents startled by series of late-night fireworks
OAKLAND – Many people in Oakland say they were startled when a series of fireworks went off Saturday night around 10 p.m.
People say it went on for about five minutes. After, Oakland Fire responded to the area near 20th and Campbell Steerts by Raimondi Park for a box of fireworks that was on fire.
The sound reverberated through the city, leaving many people questioning what it was.
"It sounded like an explosion," Victoria Strafford said.
"I thought it was maybe it was somebody pushing something heavy down the street," Jolane Abrams said.
"I thought it was like bombs," Caitlin Ditta said. "I was really scared."
Ditta was one of many people frightened by the noise and she lives more than a mile away from where it happened.
She drove by to see if there was any damage because, for a second, she feared for her life.
"But luckily I was able to look out the window and I saw a couple of red ones shooting up and they were going up into the air and not down but it was scary," Ditta said.
Stafford and Richard Fleming live closer, just a few blocks away.
Stafford says living in Oakland she hears fireworks from time to time, but nothing like this.
"It was just massive," said Stafford. "It sounded like an explosion of a fireworks factory or something like that."
Fleming says when he looked out the door, he was surprised by the rapid succession of the fireworks.
"Ninety to 95 percent of it was just low-level stuff you can barely see on the horizon," said Fleming. "It was like a firefight or something."
Abrams was already in bed when the fireworks started going off, it was actually her dog, Irie, who alerted her to what was happening.
"She was suddenly trying to climb on the bed, which she knows she's not allowed to do, and I was like, 'What is your problem?' and then I heard and I was like, 'Oh! I don't know what that is but I understand why you're upset,'" said Abrams.
Fleming questions how someone can even pull off this type of spectacle.
"Somebody spent a lot of money on that," said Fleming.
Most people said they're not too concerned about this one isolated incident.
Fireworks are illegal in the City of Oakland.
