Oakland's illegal firework hotline goes down as emergency crews contain flames around Bay Area

OAKLAND, Calif. - As many firefighters feared, the glow of illegal fireworks filled the East Bay skies Monday.

A tipline set up by the City of Oakland to report illegal fireworks was too full to leave messages, as the city saw a significant spike in emergency call volume.

The Oakland Fire Department posted a tweet that as of 11:59 p.m. crews had fought five vegetation fires caused by fireworks.

The department's tweet included the following: "Call volume overall for fires and medical incidents citywide saw a significant spike. We anticipate a long night ahead, and we're ready."   

In San Francisco, the fire department posted four fires in a four-minute span that crews were responding to just before midnight.

Tweets from the department did not specify the causes of the fires.   

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Firefighters in Contra Costa County reported fighting 30 fires Monday night, with nine confirmed as being caused by fireworks. In a tweet just before midnight, the department posted "Since the start of the holiday weekend Friday p.m., Con Fire responded to 70 fires, many caused by fireworks."   

Included in that total was a 6.5-acre vegetation fire near Bay Point, where witnesses said the fire was started by someone setting off fireworks from a vehicle.   

Just before midnight, the Vallejo firefighters union also reported that crews had responded to multiple fires caused by fireworks across the city.