California firefighters are struggling to contain multiple wildfires in many areas across the Bay Area during the extremely hot weather during the weekend.
“The conditions are definitely a lot more intense for them to work in,” Chelsea Burkett, a CalFire firefighter said regarding the incident. Firefighters worked tirelessly for hours deep in the hills between Livermore and Brentwood in an attempt to contain the Diablo Fire.
Massive Wildfire
CalFire said it began receiving reports regarding the wildfire at around 9:30 a.m. Authorities said they needed to dispatch more than 100 firefighters to be able to fully contain the massive blaze. Officials said the fire, which was quickly burning through the region, was at a temperature of 98 degrees while plowing through about 128 acres of grassland.
“It’s just an indication of the fuel type that we have right now. The high heat, the low humidity it all makes the vegetation really susceptible to fire,” Burkett said.
Another wildfire was burning through San Jose as firefighters responded to the incident near Rocksprings Park. Residents in the area were reminded of a burning wildfire after seeing a plume of smoke climbing towards the sky. Authorities also noted that illegal fireworks also had a hand in the increase of wildfires in the region, similar to Antioch.
“It ruined my house, it ruined everything. Everything I own is in my front lawn. For what? I don’t even understand why they are doing it. It doesn’t make sense. We’re in a drought and they are blowing it up like it’s a game,” Robin Anderson, an Antioch resident, said.
On Saturday night, fireworks were blasting off in an area near Anderson’s home, fire crews confirmed. “A couple hours ago we responded to a fire in Pittsburg, and recently we were one street over at fireworks that caught some grass and vehicles on fire,” Scott Valencia, a firefighter in Antioch, said, ABC7 News reported.
Bay Area officials have struggled to control the surge of illegal fireworks in the region. Concord authorities said they were not counting on technology to manage the issue. The Concord Connect app was created to give residents a medium to report illegal fireworks they observe.
“It places a pin on a map. As we start seeing clusters like let’s say on Concord Boulevard and Bailey Road, then we know that we can focus in that area and we can tell our patrol officers,” Lt. Greg Rodriguez of the Concord Police said.
