Home Discovery Bay & Byron Update: Two Alarm Fire Destroys Discovery Bay Home, Damages Two Others

Update: Two Alarm Fire Destroys Discovery Bay Home, Damages Two Others

by ECT

discovery Bay fire

At 6:39 pm, East Contra Costa Fire Protection District responded to what was being reported as a garage fire in Discovery Bay on Edgeview Ct.  which quickly escalated and required 10-engines on scene and 37 firefighters.

There were reports that an explosion of some sort that occurred in the garage which began the fire. This caused a major amount of smoke into the air which could be scene from miles away–which actually was called in by an off-duty Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Battalion Chief, John Kipp.

According to Chief Hugh Henderson, BC Kipp arrived on scene about 3-minutes after it was dispatched and found the home engulfed with flames and now threatening a second home.  When Engine 59 arrived, they worked to save that home and prevent damage to a third home.

During the incident, there were  reports multiple explosions prior to fire arriving on scene. Chief Henderson stated he was second on scene behind the first engine and BC Kipp and didn’t hear any explosions, but that they are trained to handle those types of situations.

“Most of the time they are making noise, it doesn’t mean they are projectiles. We heard bullets and propane tanks and fuel cans. We are having to be careful,” said Henderson.

According to Chief Hugh Henderson, the fifth engine (from Antioch) arrived on scene 20 minutes after dispatched. The fire was deemed under control at 7:40 pm.

“You can’t get much farther in district than Discovery Bay. The 5th engine from Antioch took 20 minutes. Without auto aid/mutual aid, we need their help and this is where we will see the impacts if they continue to have closed stations,” explained Henderson.

Henderson was referencing the fact that 6-of-10 engines were from CONFIRE.

Chief Henderson said the two-story home where the fire originated was a total loss with heavy fire damage throughout while there was moderate damage to one neighboring home with minor smoke damage to a third home.

As of 10:20 pm. Antioch and Pittsburg engines have been released while East Contra Costa Fire Protection Districts four engines are still in Discovery Bay on scene–this is leaving the District covered by a single CALFIRE engine. During the incident, Antioch, Pittsburg and East County had a total of three engines covering the area.

It should be noted, PG&E was able to shut off the electricity around 7:42–nearly an hour after the incident began.

Here is a look at the he response times . The first number is “enroute” and the second number is time “arrived”. All calls were dispatched at roughly 6:40pm.

  • Engine 59 – 6:42:36 / 6:48:30
  • Engine 52  – 6:43:43 / 6:56:19
  • Engine 94 – 6:41:52 / 6:55:59
  • Engine 93 – 6:42:53 / 7:00:20
  • Engine 88 – 6:42:12 / 7:00:59
  • BC5 – 6:42:26/ 6:53:59
  • Engine 82 – 6:46:35 / 7:06:16
  • Engine 81 – 6:47:16 / 7:14:48
  • Quint 83 – 6:49:06 / 7:17:08
  • BC8 – 6:49:29 / 7:13:32

Check back for updates.

discovery Bay fire 2

Photo courtesy of Greg Ruiz Art. The photos below are courtesy of Nate Anderson.

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23 comments

B-Wood Apr 24, 2013 - 8:38 pm

Thanks to Greg Ruiz for the photo(s).

Jake G Apr 24, 2013 - 11:05 pm

Thank you for staying on top of this throughout the evening. Very helpful.

Barbara DuMont Apr 25, 2013 - 8:07 am

I hope everyone takes a good look at the response times. If you were trapped in the burning house those minutes are the difference of life or death. No I am not being a drama queen, I am stating a fact. One house totally lost, 2 others damaged because we do not have the proper level of coverage for our population. Please note that stations 58 and 57 (Byron) are closed. All of us know that the only way that ECCFPD is going to be funded is a fire safety tax. When it goes on the ballot, hopefully the people that lost there homes (here and on Bethel Island) stand up with the rest of us, and yell louder than the anti-tax people. But in the mean time, we willl continue to see stories like this. My heart goes out to the homeowners that lost everything. All I can is I am sorry.

Judy Bittner Apr 25, 2013 - 10:24 am

My heart goes out to the three homeowners (and tenant) of these damaged homes. I can’t think of anything more tragic than losing everything to a house fire.

Thank you to the brave emergency crews who responded to this devastating event. Watching these brave souls perform their duties – especially when they were on the top of the steep pitched tile roofs of these homes engulfed in flames – was unbelievable. To the “lay” person, we have no concept of the danger these service providers encounter until this kind of event takes place. As a bystander watching them protect adjacent property to keep this massive fire from spreading and consuming more homes was awe inspiring.

I find it difficult to believe that all cities keep cutting fire and police services. It is total insanity. But, when we were given the chance to continue to protect our community it was vetoed because the homeowners didn’t want to pay an additional few dollars in taxes a year. For the cost of a few cups of Starbuck’s coffee per resident (per year) we could have kept stations open and enhanced not only response time but not had to wait 20+ minutes for additional assistance from Antioch. Thank God no one was injured or worse. WAKE UP People! If the community governments can’t provide service protection we have to protect ourselves. This was an unfortunate reminder of what we now must take into our own hands.

JigsUp Apr 25, 2013 - 2:02 pm

Judy nails it.

Let’s hope people wake up before we have a massive catastrophe. 6 engines used here, leaving vast areas of East County uncovered for a substantial period of time. Secondary major incidents do occur. It’s only a matter of time before we see one and the losses are going to be big. Every day that we live with sub-standard coverage is dodging a bullet.

B-Wood Apr 25, 2013 - 6:25 pm

Barbara and Judy are right. People need to WAKE up BEFORE this happens again. Next time it could be Brentwood, Knightsen, Oakley or Byron. If you don’t think it can happen to you, then think again. Citizens need to stop listening to short sighted people like Dan Borenstein (CCtimes), Kris Hunt (CC Tax) and Dave Roberts. My thoughts and prayers go out to those folks in Disco Bay. I’ll bet right about now they wish the closed stations (DB and Byron) had not been closed. It might have made a big difference. Now I am hearing one, maybe two MORE stations in Contra Costa Fire are on the chopping block. What is going to happen then? It’s simple, we’re screwed.

Glad no lives were lost.

Disco Mike Apr 25, 2013 - 1:19 pm

Glad I came across this site to provide real news. So much better than other local sources we have been stuck with. Very little coverage in Discovery Bay.

Disco Don Apr 25, 2013 - 5:26 pm

Disco Mike,

Oh heck, you could have read about this in a about a week from now in the Discovery Bay Press! OR better yet…….. a month from now in the Delta Sun Times. LMFAO!

JimSimmons42 Apr 25, 2013 - 4:06 pm

Thank you for giving us back our engines last night East County.

Barbara DuMont Apr 25, 2013 - 7:06 pm

Your welcome and we do appreciate the help. Personally, I hate to hear ConFire dispatched into ECCFPD. We should be taking care of ourselves, funding our fire dept at the needed levels. And while ConFire units are tired up in East County, Antioch/Pittsburg are not receiving the level of service that they deserve. So I guess we owe you an apology also.

CFER Apr 25, 2013 - 7:03 pm

Firefighters did a great job. More importantly thanks to John Kipp (firefighter) for being so observant and reporting this fire before even the neighbors noticed. Too bad the other houses were not saved by the first engine from Discovery Bay. The original home had explosions from within and probably could not have been saved no matter how many engines were put on it. It was stated that ammunition was exploding right off the bat. A new tax would not change anything other than take food money from my family. We all pay the same taxes as the rest of the county. I expect Con Fire to show up. They are a county run fire agency. Mutual aid is common law and expected. Everyone helps everyone else. Just like the President and the progressive radicals want to redistribute wealth, the same should go for government agencies. the rich ones should help the poor ones until they are joined together at the same level. A democratic solution to everything.

JigsUp Apr 25, 2013 - 10:15 pm

That one wins the absent logic award right there. There’s a closed station 2 blocks away. You saying having that open wouldn’t have resulted in a different outcome? Maybe you could sell that idea to the neighbors who suffered significant damage.

The statement mutual aid is common laws is a new one. Dead wrong, but a new one. At least you didn’t go full silly and say it’s also automatically free.

When I said I hope people wake up, I was by inference excluding the hopeless cases and the clueless ones. You might be a two-fer.

Steve Smith Apr 26, 2013 - 8:29 am

You are wrong on several levels. John Kipp noticed smoke and checked in with Fire Dispatch, which had already dispatched the first alarm engines. He got the address, drove over, confirmed a serious fire with explosions, and called for the second alarm, perhaps three minutes earlier than would have been the case.

CONFIRE is hardly rich. From a high of 30 companies, they will be down to 22 companies by the start of 2014 per the draft budget which recieved BOS preliminary approval on Tuesday.

ECCFPD reopens the Downtown Brentwood station next Tuesday, which gives us a total of five, barely enough to field a first alarm response. We can only afford two of them because of the FEMA grant, which runs out in the second half of 2014. Our current tax base, artifically low for historical reasons, will only support three stations.

CONFIRE is still crunching the numbers for the next round of station closures, but I would not be surprised if both came from Battalion 8 (Antioch/Pittsburg), dropping East County to eleven stations (CONFIRE and ECCFPD) east of the Willow pass.

burkforoakley Apr 26, 2013 - 8:46 am

Thank you Director Smith for providing accurate information.

ECV Apr 26, 2013 - 9:58 am

@ CFER,

Damn boy, you musta got whacked hard with the idiot stick! Based on your rant you must be keeping company with John Gonzales, Kris Hunt, Dave Roberts, Danny Borenstein, and those three clowns from Disco Bay. The 8 of you could form a club; “Fools without Borders” or Citizens lacking Common Sense”.

Why doesn’t it surprise me that you are making decisions based on “food money” and using comments like “progressive radicals”…or was it the “dysfunctional progressives” that got you all stirred up when you were posting earlier this week as DDB? What’s wrong CFER (DDB)…cap lock sticky? Maybe you can help out your lil buddy “jb” since he can’t seem to find his. You guys are a riot.

https://eastcountytoday.net/emails-highlight-crime-prevention-meeting-oversights-by-organizers/.

DDB
April 20, 2013 • 7:15 pm

“This entire fiasco with dysfunctional progressives in Discovery Bay…”

Barbara DuMont Apr 26, 2013 - 8:47 am

The comment above is an excellent example of what I call “head buried in the sand”. Unlike the US government we can’t print money, we have to live with what we receive in property tax–which is less than what ConFire receives due to Prop 13. I am always dumbfounded then get irate at the stupid comments–mutual aid is common law??? Then why do agencies have to sign mutual aid pacts? Next will the old tired battle over pay and pensions. We can thanks CCTaxpayers Assn, the CCTimes and a few vocal locals. Unlike those people, I have taken the time to educate myself, read the many studies and reports, and talked to first responders here and outside the district. What it comes down to is this: If I ever need to call 911 (fire or medical) I want the first responders to come quickly. I don’t want to stand on E. Cypress Rd and watch my home of over 35 years burn to the ground because of lack of resources. And I sure and the hell don’t want to stand on the road next to a crashed car trying to keep that person breathing, watching the person in the other vehicle burn to death waiting for the fire dept to arrive Been there, done that.

ECVsBrother Apr 26, 2013 - 1:33 pm

I read in the paper that Kipp was on his way home from a shift when he notice the smoke and called it in. Why is there always seven different stories for the same event. Someone needs to straighten out the CC Times for wrongful news or this blog. Both can’t be right with different stories. I think it is funny how people point the finger at each other when neither one of them knows jack.

burkforoakley Apr 26, 2013 - 1:36 pm

ECV… my info about Kipp came from Chief Henderson’s mouth.

Steve Smith Apr 26, 2013 - 2:22 pm

18:40:17 First Resident Phone Call reports garage fire
18:41:07 Second Resident Phone call on same fire
18:41:41 Sheriff’s Deputy arrives, confirms garage fire
18:42:21 Unit 1107 (John Kipp) calls in, reports smoke, given address
18:42:36 First Due engine (E159) enroute
18:46:07 John Kipp arrives on scene, reports fire from 2 sides of house and explosions, calls second alarm, establishes Incident Command.
18:48:30 E159 arrives, begins attacking fire on second house
18:59:09 E194 arrives, begins interior attack

From Detail Dispatch Log, plus I was monitoring radio traffic at the time.

burkforoakley Apr 26, 2013 - 3:04 pm

I have the full log also… the argument could be made that if BC Kipp did not live right around the corner, a second home could have been lost–maybe a third. Having him directly on scene and directing the response was HUGE and saved a ton of time. A lot went right considering our other engines were not tied up on other calls.

EVERYONE on scene deserves credit.

Steve Smith Apr 26, 2013 - 4:13 pm

Agreed.

ECV Apr 26, 2013 - 2:35 pm

The CCTimes is not reliable these days. I don’t beLIEve anything they print.

ECV Apr 26, 2013 - 3:13 pm

@ ECV’s brother,

You are no brother of mine. And that’s a fact Jack.

Comments are closed.