Gilroy Requests 8 People Be Charged With Use Of Illegal Fireworks

GILROY, CA — Gilroy saw an increase in calls for service related to illegal fireworks during the 4th of July compared to last year and the Gilroy Police Department requested that eight people be charged by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office with use of illegal fireworks.

The city received 175 calls this year compared to 100 calls last year, according to a news release Monday. However, the city claimed that it was able to respond to calls sooner and it received fewer fire-related calls for service.

Using funds from mitigation fees collected through sales of safe and sane fireworks, Gilroy doubled its police staffing during the evening hours of July 4 and had two additional fire engines to help monitor high fire-threat areas.

It also deployed a drone that provided overviews of hotspots. The “NailEm” app allowed users to report illegal fireworks in real-time.

Gilroy is the only city in Santa Clara County where specific fireworks during the Fourth of July weekend are legal. Fire Chief Jim Wyatt said after the holiday that firework activity must be down because the number of fires started went down by more than 50 percent.

In 2020, Gilroy had nine firework-related fires on Independence Day.

This year, Gilroy only had four, all of which were vegetation fires and manageable, Wyatt said.

The Fire Chief said all the fires that sparked both in 2021 and 2020 were because of illegal fireworks. In Gilroy, safe and sane fireworks, which do not shoot up in the air and have a smaller amount on gun powder, are the only legal types of fireworks and they are only legal during that weekend.

Those fireworks have been legal in the city for at least 25 years, he said, but really the city saw an uptick in fireworks usage in the last five years.

Their rise in popularity, compounded with the end of many pandemic-related restrictions, made many local fire departments worried for the Fourth of July weekend.

"We were preparing for the worst," Wyatt said. "It just seemed like it was a perfect storm we were going into with the Fourth of July being over the weekend, and it just wasn't so."

Jana Kadah of Bay City News contributed to this report.