Now that another Fourth of July is history here in Gilroy, The
Dispatch’s comment July 6 about unofficial fireworks exploding all
weekend was certainly true in my neighborhood.
Now that another Fourth of July is history here in Gilroy, The Dispatch’s comment July 6 about unofficial fireworks exploding all weekend was certainly true in my neighborhood. In fact, the bang-bang-boom action began on Friday evening, with the sounds of firecrackers, cherry bombs and screaming rockets going off on various cul-de-sacs and streets all around us.
This action repeated on Saturday evening, and of course reached its zenith on Sunday evening, going on past 11:30 p.m. My call to the illegal fireworks Hot Line proved to be of no value. I suspect there were just too many calls for the police to check out, and by the time they were able to respond (if they did), all was quiet on the western front around us.
Somebody apparently hated to stop a fun thing, and couldn’t resist one last big bang on Monday evening at 11:30 p.m. So much for neighborly compassion for those of us who had to get up early Tuesday morning. But the thing that ticked me the most was finding on Tuesday evening the burned-out remains of a Black Cat “Cluster Bee” rocket lodged under a large elevated flower pot on my backyard patio. This would seem to indicate that the device was still under rocket power on the down side of its trajectory into my yard, rather than simply falling straight down from the sky. The printed warning still visible on the burned out shell stated “this rocket travels at high speeds and can travel long distances. Misuse may result injury or fire.”
Yeah, I’ll certainly verify the distance thing. Some airhead obviously didn’t give a care or couldn’t read, or both, when he shot this thing off. I was fortunate not to have had it start a fire.
While The Dispatch indicated that GPD Sgt. Kurt Svardal said many of the people he spoke with seemed to know little about fireworks legality, it’s certainly a blessing that Gilroy didn’t have the problems with fires this Fourth that it had last year. But this year’s result seemed to be due to the cooler weather and the extra police officers and firefighters on duty. Ah, the taxpayers getting tapped again for extra overtime dollars. But what ‘s a citizen going to do?
From the “Just As I Thought” File: in my column March 16, I wrote “While I agree that something has to be done about “dangerous” fireworks, I have to laugh at the “education through channel 17” part of the proposed fireworks plan. Yeah, those people who are determined to set off dangerous fireworks are really going to get “educated” not to do it by watching channel 17. Who in Gilroy even knows about channel 17?”
So it was consoling to see The Dispatch say that an education campaign led by Fire Marshall Jackie Bretschneider prior to the Fourth apparently yielded little evidence from police and fire officials that the campaign reduced the number of illegal fireworks going off in Gilroy. It figures. Some folks even with education, just can’t comprehend or don’t care about anybody else’s safety. Their only concern is that they have fun, no matter what the safety problems they create for others.
But speaking of public safety in regards to fire danger, Gilroy Fire Department Division Chief Phil King was kind enough to inform me what GFD has been doing to prepare for the fire season.
For example, under the category of preparation, each fire fighter receives an additional 25 hours of forest fire, wildland and urban interface refresher training including strategy tactics and safety procedures. Engine 73 housed in the Las Animas Station and equipped to drive on rough terrain, is put in service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during fire season. GFD also receives as necessary, mutual aid from the California Department of Forestry for the geography west of Santa Teresa Boulevard, while automatically receiving aid from South County Fire throughout the city as necessary.
Mitigation is an important part of prevention, and weed abatement is extremely important. Vacant areas of land are particularly vulnerable to weeds growing out of control, so the fire marshall’s office conducts extensive checks, and sends out notifications to owners to abate weed problems in a timely manner, or face fines. And finally the category of public education via public service announcements on local channel 17 is another way the department works with the Gilroy public, although as I said before, I tend to doubt its effectiveness.
Hopefully Gilroy can look forward to July 4, 2005 as the next officially scheduled time for safe and sane fireworks, and in the meantime have a safe fire season this year with no major brush fires. Time will tell.
