Firefighters and police fielded more than 140 fireworks-related
calls July 4, as the holiday’s pyrotechnics
– both legal and illegal – gave Gilroy the feel of a war
zone.
Gilroy – Firefighters and police fielded more than 140 fireworks-related calls July 4, as the holiday’s pyrotechnics – both legal and illegal – gave Gilroy the feel of a war zone.
In a single night, police were dispatched to quell fistfights, stop an elderly man flinging fireworks at cars off Welburn Avenue, clear a sizable dead dog blocking Santa Teresa Boulevard, and halt a man pleasuring himself in a Kern Avenue parking lot – and officers said it wasn’t as hectic as past years, Gilroy Police Sgt. Jim Gillio reported.
Firefighters snuffed a smoldering bush near Eliot School, secured a downed power line, and put out a Christmas tree, belatedly set ablaze by its owner, responding to 18 calls for service.
No large-scale fires occurred, despite fears that parched grass and broiling temperatures could add up to serious fires sparked by wayward fireworks.
“We were pretty fortunate last night,” said Gilroy Fire Chief Dale Foster. “It could have been a lot worse.”
Eighteen people were slapped with misdemeanor citations for illegal fireworks, said city Fire Marshal Jacqueline Bretschneider, and 44 more were dealt administrative citations, which don’t require an officer to directly observe the homeowner setting off illegal fireworks. Bretschneider plans to mail out the citations today and Monday.
To discourage the banned fireworks – high-flying explosives like bottle rockets, M-80s and Roman candles – Bretschneider mailed letters to last year’s problem areas, a form of targeted outreach recommended by City Council after its fall retreat with police and fire staff. She also targeted block parties:
Three of the city’s 10 registered parties were cited for illegal fireworks this year, plus one unregistered party in a hazardous fire zone.
“The biggest disappointment for me was that there were still a fair number of reports from the area of Snowberry” Court, a trouble spot last year, Bretschneider said. “We sent out letters … and it didn’t seem to faze anybody.”
Nor did early reports of gruesome injuries: A Daisy Lane resident lost two fingers to a mortar-type firework the night of Sunday, July 1, and might have lost his thumb too without doctors’ help, Sgt. Gillio said.
Gilroy is the only city in Santa Clara County that allows fireworks sales, restricted to “safe and sane” varieties such as sparklers. Anything that flies and anything that explodes on the ground is forbidden, Bretschneider explained, and even the “safe and sane” fireworks are off-limits in northwest Gilroy and in Eagle Ridge, a gated community east of Santa Teresa Boulevard: The areas are too close to untrimmed, combustible grasslands.
