Unsupervised children char home with ‘safe and sane’ fireworks
bought in Gilroy
When the Miranda family motored toward their San Jose house
after a vacation in Southern California, they had a homecoming they
won’t forget.
Unsupervised children char home with ‘safe and sane’ fireworks bought in Gilroy
When the Miranda family motored toward their San Jose house after a vacation in Southern California, they had a homecoming they won’t forget.
Their home on Foxworthy Avenue was ablaze as platoons of firefighters trained gushing hoses through the windows, attempting to contain a fire that had started just minutes before when two local children had shoved lit sparklers through a screen in the kitchen window of the empty house. Another fire, also started with “safe and sane” fireworks that went out of control, had lit up the back yard.
“The first sight they had of their home were the fire trucks around it,” said San Jose Fire Captain Anthony Pianto. “They were not forewarned.”
After they put out the fire, Pianto and his crew went door-to-door through the Foxworthy neighborhood to investigate the cause of the blaze and soon found their culprits: two boys of grade school age had started the fires after receiving legal fireworks bought in Gilroy – the only city within Santa Clara County that still allows the selling of fireworks during the Fourth of July holidays.
Gilroy – and Hollister – permit sales of legal fireworks, and many non-profit organizations depend heavily on their sales as major fund-raisers.
The boys had been given the “safe and sane” fireworks from another neighborhood child, who had received the incendiaries from her father. The father had bought the fireworks in Gilroy and brought them back to San Jose. The names of those involved were not released, but the boys and the father were all cited on misdemeanor charges.
The fire caused an estimated $300,000 in smoke, heat and fire damage throughout the house. The Miranda family declined to be interviewed.
Pianto emphasized that transporting fireworks to an area where they are banned is illegal.
“Why the city (of Gilroy) still allows sales, I have no idea,” Pianto said. “San Jose adopted the ordinance many years ago. There are so many things that can go wrong with the so-called ‘safe and sane’ fireworks, especially if they end up in the wrong hands, in the hands of kids. There’s not only the danger of fires but of great injury – burns and eye injuries.
“They say safe and sane right on the wrapper but it doesn’t matter,” Pianto added. He also warned that many illegal incendiaries, particularly bottle rockets, can be guaranteed fire starters that go haywire before landing in the worst of places.
“Those are just plain illegal,” he said. “They are projectiles, and they land without knowledge of where they land, like on a dry patch of grass or a rooftop. Those are so dangerous and they often have such quick fuses.”
Pianto said he was grateful that none of the 26 firefighters who battled the blaze, nor any citizens, were injured.
