Weekend Brush Fire In Newark; Firefighters Deploy

NEWARK, CA —Firefighters fought dozens of fires in the East Bay over the holiday weekend, including one in Newark.

The biggest fire was in Sunol where 85 acres of brush burned. It was originally pegged at 105 acres, but better mapping led to a downward revision in acreage.

No injuries were reported.

Newark was not unscathed. Alameda County Fire Department crews responded to a fire at Thornton Avenue and Hickory Street. No injuries were reported and no structures were reported damaged.

On the 4th of July alone, the Alameda County Fire Department responded to 22 vegetation fires and 7 structure fires. Add in Con Fire, CAL FIRE, and all of the municipal agencies, and area teams say they were practically overwhelmed.

Monday morning, East Bay firefighters remain on the lines of the biggest fire burning in the Bay Area, the Crews Fire, east of Gilroy in rural Santa Clara County which has blackened an estimated 1,500 acres and is 15 percent contained as of Monday morning, according to Cal Fire. It has burned 2 buildings, threatens more structures, and has forced people to evacuate from their homes.

The East Bay firefighters are part of a California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) Strike Team, sent Sunday evening to the Crews Fire. Fremont, Alameda County, Hayward, and Oakland firefighters and their equipment are also part of the strike team. They met at Fremont Fire Station 7 for a quick briefing and headed out together.

All public fireworks displays in the East Bay and San Francisco were canceled this year to enforce coronavirus social distancing rules, as cases of coronavirus surge in California, and in several places across the nation. Instead, residents bought their own fireworks, sometimes with disastrous results.

— Patch editor Bea Karnes and Bay City News contributed to this story