Although neighbors to the north in Morgan Hill were out a
fireworks show this Independence Day due to strong winds, Gilroy’s
festivities went off without a hitch.
the fireworks and interviews with Gilroyans who watched
them.
Although neighbors to the north in Morgan Hill were out a fireworks show this Independence Day due to strong winds, Gilroy’s festivities went off without a hitch.
Gilroy police and fire boosted their numbers, adding two extra engines and extra patrols, to prepare for what could have been a hectic holiday but turned out to be a relatively tame night, Gilroy Fire Department Chief Dale Foster said. The fire department received 177 calls for service this year between June 20 and July 5, 15 more than the same time last year, only four of which materialized into anything significant on July 4, Foster said.
A fire that burned about 15,000 square feet of land in a flood control area next to a creek near Church Street and Farrell Avenue in northern Gilroy was ignited by an illegal bottle rocket, Foster said. Neighbors reported the fire when they saw smoke in the area. However, no structures were damaged.
Two small fires were ignited by safe and sane fireworks, one on Forest Street caused by a bag of improperly extinguished fireworks and another on Loganberry Drive after a safe and sane firework was thrown into the air.
“The teenagers want to make it more spectacular,” Foster said. The renegade firework landed in a neighbor’s bush where it was extinguished with a garden hose, he said.
“Do you see the dangerous and illegal fireworks everywhere … the rockets and missiles being shot off?” wrote Mark van Wyk in an e-mail addressed to the mayor and councilmembers. “How can the cops stop this insanity when people who are shooting off increasingly sophisticated illegal fireworks are hiding among so-called ‘safe and sane’ fireworks users?”
A resident of northwest Gilroy, van Wyk spent July 5 collecting debris from his roof and yard left over from high-flying, illegal rockets shot into the air by neighbors.
Fire officials responded to a fourth fire Friday night that was unrelated to fireworks, started by a homeless person trying to keep warm in the area of Las Animas and San Ysidro avenues.
“None became structure fires,” Foster said. “All of them were put out quickly by either the property owner or the fire department. There was no significant damage.”
The first of the four fires started around 7 p.m. and the last at 1 a.m., he said.
Foster approximated that 40 citations were handed out this year. Gilroy police did not return phone calls to confirm this number.
