It was a long Independence Day for two families in San Bruno after their homes, on different blocks, caught on fire when illegal fireworks were going off Tuesday.
Firefighters were still dousing a home on 5th Street near Angus Avenue Wednesday. The home was tagged and restricted.
Neighbors say it was about 3 a.m. when they were jolted awake.
“I like saw the red lights outside my window,” said neighbor Havisha Tandel. “I was just shocked and like, kind of scared.”
Dan Lehr lives across the street and showed video of the commotion that woke him and his wife up.They went outside.
“First thing I said like I said was ‘did anybody get hurt or anything?’" said Lehr. "You can recover from the loss of property and all that but having someone hurt if dead or something that’s horrible."
Neighbors say generations of a family lived at the home and thankfully – all are OK.
Neighbors said their street didn’t even light off fireworks. So now they’re asking what led to the destruction there and why.
“There was some over on 3rd, some over on 4th … but none around here,” said Lehr.
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Earlier in the night and just a three minute drive from that house, San Bruno firefighters used a chainsaw to attack the flames mostly in the garage of a home on Florida.
People living there say they enjoyed safe and sane fireworks and called it quits around 10:30 p.m.
Then around midnight, neighbors woke to someone screaming “fire!”
They ran to get the family with small children out safely.
The San Bruno Fire Department said that the fire on Florida was knocked down in 15 minutes. The other one in about 20 minutes.
The department said both of the fires are still under investigation.
