Pittsburg home seriously damaged after fireworks spark house fire
By Lauren Toms
PITTSBURG -- Residents of a Pittsburg neighborhood were grateful to be back in their homes Tuesday after a close call July 4th when fireworks set fire to two backyards.
"I'm thankful I was home. I'm thankful everyone was OK. It's the damage. It's bad. It's shocking to see. You wake up and your backyard it's gone," neighbor Sharita Wilson told KPIX 5.
On Tuesday, she called her 17-year-old son a hero after he noticed the flames at 9 p.m. and quickly called 911, prompting Wilson, her children and pets to exit their home.
"He had seen the fire, made the 911 call. You know, they were pretty calm up until we got outside. Then they were able to release," Wilson said.
She says she was getting ready to take her kids to see fireworks, but her neighbors were already gone.
"They were out enjoying fireworks at the water," Wilson explained. "Probably where you should be doing fireworks. They come back now to no house."
Contra Costa County Fire responded to 79 calls over the weekend, and they say nearly all of them were related to illegal fireworks.
"The fires were still starting from fireworks, but they were kept relatively small," Chris Bachman of Contra Costa County Fire told KPIX 5. "We did have one fire at Bay Point and it grew to six and a half acres, We were on scene about 90 minutes before we were able to clear."
The fire department attributed low humidity — which hovered around 60% to 70% — to preventing fires from spreading more rapidly.
But they are warning anyone with leftover fireworks to reconsider lighting the rest this upcoming weekend with conditions expected to be much drier.
Wilson said she, her children and all their pets were safe and accounted for.
"We're tired, a little bit stressed. We had a rough night but they're okay," Wilson told KPIX 5.
Her fence and yard sustained damage from the fire, but her home was unharmed. Wilson's neighbors are facing more severe damage to their roof and house. She said she hopes more people will consider the impact to others when lighting their own fireworks.
"Now that I know the danger and the unfortunate loss that my neighbors had to go through, it's just a loss. Because now somebody doesn't have a house to come home to," Wilson said.
