Illegal Fireworks

NOTE: In San Diego County, fireworks are banned. People manage to get them anyway.

I always enjoyed working holidays. It usually meant a relaxing shift as we had no regular work routine that we were responsible for. I used the time to catch up on the never-ending training projects I was involved in. As holiday shifts usually went though, the 4^th of July was definitely an outlier. With our typical hot, dry weather, and the ubiquitous use of illegal fireworks in our region, we were pretty much guaranteed a bunch of vegetation fires, some that usually got pretty big!

On July 4, 2006, I was the company officer assigned to our fire station 1 on Riverview Ave. At that time, we had two companies quartered there: Engine 1 and Medic 1 for a total of five personnel during our 24-hour shift.

By noon, the outside temperature was pushing 100 degrees, fairly typical for inland SoCal in the summer. As the day heated up, both station 1 crews were hunkered down inside with the air conditioning blasting, waiting for the inevitable response(s) coming our way.

Just after 1 p.m., our station alerting sounded for a fire response. A commercial structure fire!! Frankly, it was not a day we wanted to don our hot, heavy structure fire gear (PPE); however, you dress for the call you receive!

The fire was reported to be in a commercial building adjacent to our historic Maine Avenue business district about two miles from fire station 1. As we quickly got enroute, our Heartland Communications dispatcher told me they had received multiple reports. That important detail almost always indicated a working incident. As we passed Channel Rd. on eastbound Woodside Ave., a significant tight, black smoke column became visible. As required by our operational area communication policy, I notified dispatch and other responding companies that we had, “smoke showing from a distance.”

Although the dispatched address was on Vine St., I elected to approach from Maine Ave. as I knew that the location of the closest fire hydrant would be most accessible from that direction. As we turned the corner onto Parkside St., I got my first look at the fire. It was in a small single-story commercial/residential occupancy across the street from our library. It appeared to be well-involved with fire!

I had my engineer (driver-operator) stop at the corner and called for my firefighter to wrap the hydrant so we could lay a 4” supply line, securing a water supply for firefighting operations. My Medic 1 crew met us in front of the building as we pulled-up and I directed them to stretch a preconnected attack line to the “Delta” or right side of the building. My priority was to quickly get some water on the large amount of fire showing from the roof on what I designated as the Charlie (rear) side of the structure.

With the first hoseline in service and knocking down the visible exterior fire, my firefighter joined me at the front of the small residential apartment that adjoined the two commercial occupancies in the building. With a moderate amount of smoke pushing out the metal security entrance door, it became evident that the fire had extended into the small apartment. As I worked on forcing open the locked door, my firefighter stretched and readied and additional hoseline. When I got the door open, we entered the apartment and quickly extinguished the fire that had extended there.

With the subsequent arrival of first alarm companies and our Battalion Chief, the other tasks and priorities for a working structure fire were quickly handled. It wasn’t long before we had the fire extinguished and we began the task of overhaul. It was also when we began our fire origin and investigation procedures.

Upon investigation, it was discovered that the fire was started by an illegal bottle rocket igniting exposed shake shingles on the mansard portion of the roof, the fireworks likely originating across the street in the county park. The culprit of this illegal act was never identified.