The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District says firefighters saw a 30% increase in activity on the July 4 holiday when compared to last year.
In a verbal report given Tuesday during the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Board meeting, Fire Chief Lewis Broschard provided data and an overview of calls for service and other District happenings.
The main focus, however, was the July 4 Holiday where most of the activity occurred in the City of Antioch, City of Pittsburg and Bay Point—including a fatal shooting.
“Unfortunately, the Fourth of July didn’t disappoint this year. It was busy and that is a massive understatement,” said Broschard who added they experienced incredibly high call volume from 9:00 pm through midnight. “There was a lot of activity in front of that and behind that.”
He shared the District brought in 2-3 extra dispatchers and answered 1,104 calls between 10:00 am to 3:00 am. On a normal day, the call volume is around a couple hundred calls—July 4 was nearly 4x the norm.
Calls included:
- 92 total fire (exterior) calls
- 16 vegetation fires
- 13 structure fires
- 128 medical calls.
- 60 other calls along with 8 other fire calls.
A total of 317 incidents were dispatched with a majority of those being EMS or fire related calls that have something to do with the activities on the July 4 holiday.
“Typically what happens on July 4 is everyone moves to the east to Pittsburg and Antioch which is where the lion share of the activity occurs and this year was no different,” explained Broschard.
For July 4, Contra Costa County Fire had to rely on help from outside agencies –excluding Richmond Fire and El Cerrito. He noted they borrowed 3 engine companies from San Ramon Valley Fire, 2 engines from Moraga-Orinda, Rodeo, Crockett also sent engines along with federal fire providing 2-engines.
“It was all hands on deck trying to deal with incidents that were occurring,” said Broschard who added they also had to try and provide coverage for other areas who were still had service calls.
“By far, the City of Antioch was the dominate force in requesting and requiring our services, mostly for vegetation fires. One of which, was fairly substantial and significant with a fire that started behind a gas station and up the hill and immediately threatened a half-dozen homes. We had to evacuate that street as well as put multiple units on the fire to control it for a few hours,” shared Broschard.
He also explained around 9:00 pm, they implement a “reduced alarm plan” which impacts certain calls where it require to send fire apparatus and they cannot send it on July 4 for a period of time. They also reduce the amount of resources sent to fires—normally 5 units, but often times they send 3-units because they do not have enough units to go around, same goes for vegetation fires.
“We are already behind the curve when the sun goes down and its literally running from fire to fire to fire,” said Broschard. “A majority of these fires end up being rather small. I can say nearly all the structure fires did not end up with significant damage to a structure or the loss of a structure as a result of fireworks.”
He explained most of the fires were dealt with using 1-2 engines on scene noting fireworks start fires near homes and they are dealt with—he called it a dance of moving resources around and when someone gets available they are dispatched to a new call.
He said in 2024, they increased the number of incidents by nearly 30%.
“It is frustrating for us because we do what we can to be proactive. We had a press conference that had good coverage, we had our law enforcement partners there, the District Attorney was there, CALFIRE was there. In certain communities, that just doesn’t seem to resonate with a change of behavior. Year over year, it’s the same story. This year I think was more frustrating because it was during a long and hot week for everybody” stated Broschard. “We will continue to look for potential solutions. As we move into next year, where July 4 will be on a Friday, I expect the numbers will be just as bad if not worse.”
He anticipated 2025 will put them up against another difficult Fourth of July.
Supervisor John Gioia shared he believed they do a good job announcing that fireworks are illegal and people setting them off know they are illegal.
“I always get frustrated when people say you guys need to do a better job. Why is it like a war zone. Unfortunately, it is,” stated Gioia who asked the chief his thoughts on what could be done to be more effective.
Broschard shared he was interested to see what other jurisdictions had done (naming Woodland) but noted it takes police staffing levels but called the outreach with a press conference, signs and social media good.
“It’s a resource issue on the law enforcement side because a law enforcement officer will get taken out of service for a half-hour just to write a citation. Probably up to two-hours if they are going to book or arrest somebody,” explained Broschard. “There are so many other things going on that night. We had a shooting in Pittsburg around midnight. That takes multiple law enforcement officers to deal with that incident and they cant be out doing anything else. Certain communities have higher fines and penalties, but I also think its in hopes of having somebody make a decision that it is not worth it… I haven’t really seen anything effective.”
He explained they will follow up on things they hear about that work to deter fireworks that could be duplicated in Contra Costa County who again called it a resource issue and people who are “apathetic” to the issue.
Supervisor Diane Burgis stated she believed, “we don’t rely on personal responsibility like we used to and really think that needs to be emphasized more and more. If we are teaching our kids to do something that is not legal” while also being defiant with law enforcement and firefighters when trying to enforce these things, “its dangerous and expensive and hopefully people at home can begin o practice personal responsibility.”
Supervisor Candace Andersen asked about the task force making fireworks bust—noting Alameda County.
Broschard said they had done it in the past, and in other years they had no results. But admitted due to the limited fire investigators they had; they rely on CALFIRE to do those busts. He called it an issue of resources between CALFIRE, CONFIRE and law enforcement.
“Its good publicity and a good reminder, but the results don’t show in any kind of significant reduction we have seen in the overall activity,” shared Broschard.
June Activity:
“The month of June did not disappoint. The month of June is typically our busiest month of the year for overall activity because of the winds and dry grass,” explained Broschard. “We get multiple vegetation fires over the month.”
The chief explained what happens in the City of Antioch and City of Pittsburg in the summer months with the west winds is the dry vegetation is next to houses, in subdivisions, and housing tracts, especially in the month of June, not all the abatement is done so there is a higher risk of fire moving into structures.
He also called it “higher than normal” for June to have 13 structure fires.
Twelve significant vegetation fires occurred across the county. The two most significant events occurred at the old golf course in Pittsburg, where an old maintenance building that caught fire extended into the vegetation. Structure protection was required for homes adjacent to the golf course property. A second fast-moving vegetation fire occurred in Antioch, which also required structure protection of homes adjacent to the incident. A total of 250 acres burned. In both instances, no homes were damaged or lost due to the actions of suppression personnel and aviation assets provided by CAL FIRE.
Thirteen working structure fires occurred during the month of June, the most significant being a fire in an apartment building in Pittsburg. Fire crews pulled two victims out of the apartment. Both were not breathing at the time of the rescue, but they regained spontaneous respirations after treatment. The adult victim was recently listed in stable condition, but the hospital would not release the status of the juvenile victim.
Other Tidbits:
- At the June 17 quarterly meeting with the hospital council and executive leaderships from all hospitals in the county, most hospitals recognized that increased volume continues to challenge their abilities to reduce offload times Dr. Kidane from the County EMS Agency recommended they dedicate resources specifically to address offload delays. Sutter Delta’s model continues to be successful in reducing patient offload delays.
- The first 12 paramedic firefighter students, who attended the Contra Costa College program, have completed their didactic (classroom) portion of their training and have started their field training. Another 12 District members have been selected to start the next cohort on August 2nd. Without the ability to hire new firefighter paramedic recruits in large numbers the District has turned to training our own members to become firefighter paramedics to ensure we continue our ability to provide advanced life support (ALS) to our communities.
- The Contra Costa County Wildfire Mitigation Program wrapped up the 2023/2024 year with 103 completed projects and 88 projects still remaining in the request portal under review.
- Push-in ceremonies for the two new tillered ladder trucks occurred in June. The first truck was put in service at Fire Station 92 in Brentwood. The second truck went into service at Fire Station 81 in Antioch
- The project to replace the concrete in the apparatus bay and front apron at Fire Station 14 in Martinez has been completed
- Fire Station 94, Brentwood: Staff has continued to meet with the design-build teams who will be proposing on the project. We anticipate final selection in August. The final selected team will be responsible for taking the design through the Brentwood Planning Commission.
- Fire Station 90, Brentwood: A preferred alternative site has been identified. Preliminary soil sampling has been completed and the results are indicating no major contamination issues with the site. Staff is working to advance the project to the next steps.
Rodeo-Hercules Annexation Discussions
- Two Town Halls were conducted in June in the communities of Rodeo and Hercules. The Fire Chief and other District leadership participated in these events along with the Rodeo-Hercules Interim Fire Chief and their consultant.
- The Rodeo-Hercules FPD Board of Directors will now take the item under consideration at their July 10 board meeting and determine next steps
