During a busy Fourth of July night, firefighters and residents in the East Bay helped put out blazes believed to have been started by illegal fireworks.
As flames moved up a Concord hillside, a group of people with water buckets took action before firefighters arrived.
"We went to the dining room and looked out the window and we could see billows of yellow smoke," resident Norma Sisson said. "It was getting bigger and bigger and bigger."
She said the impromptu bucket brigade might have saved some homes.
"I'm sure they did some good," she said.
While fire crews doused firework-related flames in Antioch, one woman stepped outside to stomp out the flames herself.
Anthony Hamilton was among those told to evacuate the Lotus Street neighborhood.
"They started banging on my door," he said. "We have to go. We zooming. I got my son. I forgot my dog. I end up having to go back and get my dog, which was the scariest part."
Nearby in Bay Point, a stray firework caught a tree on fire.
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Felix Mendoza credited neighbors with hoses for keeping local damage to a minimum.
