By Demian Bulwa
The San Francisco Chronicle (California)
Copyright 2006 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
All Rights Reserved
Fourth of July revelers tossed illegal fireworks under passing cars and launched them toward dry grass around Monster Park in San Francisco, starting several fires, authorities said Wednesday.
In Oakland, police filled half a dozen 55-pound drums with confiscated fireworks, according to a Fire Department spokeswoman.
And in San Jose, a pair of young boys celebrating the Fourth a day early poked sparklers through the window of a neighbor’s home, starting a fire that caused $300,000 damage, the fire officials said.
As they took stock of holiday-related incidents, Bay Area authorities said they were astonished and overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of illegal fireworks that went off Tuesday night and early Wednesday.
“It was incredible,” fire Capt. Melinda Drayton said of the display in Oakland, where explosions continued well into Wednesday.
One group of revelers didn’t stop their display even when firefighters set up a command post nearby while battling an electrical blaze, Drayton said.
But no serious injuries related to fireworks were reported — unlike last year, when a Livermore father of three was killed by an explosive he was trying to launch at a block party.
Aerial and exploding fireworks are legal to buy in Nevada, and smaller “safe and sane” fireworks are legal in a few Bay Area cities. San Francisco is not one of them, but that didn’t keep dozens of people from firing off explosives around Monster Park.
The fireworks sparked four grass fires around the stadium, the biggest about a quarter-acre in size, said Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge. A tree, a dumpster and a couple of cars also caught fire.
The fires were among 16 small blazes around the city caused by illegal fireworks, Talmadge said.
Illegal fireworks were also the probable cause of a 75-acre grass fire that broke out in Fairfield around 10 p.m. Tuesday, said Jerry Clark, Fairfield’s assistant fire marshal. “We have some witness statements that some juveniles started it,” he said.
In the San Jose case, a couple returned from vacation Monday to find fire trucks at their charred house on Foxworthy Avenue. They soon learned that two neighborhood boys, ages 6 and 9, had shoved sparklers through the screen of an open window, said city fire Capt. Anthony Pianto.
The boys were cited for misdemeanors, as was a man in the neighborhood who purchased the sparklers in Gilroy — where “safe and sane” fireworks are legal. The man’s young daughter allegedly gave the sparklers to the boys.
In Pittsburg, police dealt with a different form of potentially dangerous celebration late Tuesday: Vincent Macaluso, 21, was arrested after he fired off rounds from semiautomatic rifles and a handgun in his backyard, said police Inspector John Conaty.
Three miles away, a 43-year-old woman pulled over her 1989 Toyota Tercel when the right rear passenger window shattered. Police found a bullet lodged in the glass and are looking into whether it was sent skyward by Macaluso.
“What goes up, must come down,” Conaty said.