Safety
The sound of screeching tires, the smell of burnt rubber, and the sight of circular black skid marks in the middle of intersections are commonplace in Richmond, especially in the North & East neighborhood. With main thoroughfares of 23rd Street to the west and San Pablo Avenue to the east, the North & East neighborhood has ultimately become a hub for speeding cars, donut spinning, and sideshows. A sideshow in July brought an estimated 200 cars to the intersection of…
It’s Friday night around 7 p.m. at Richmond’s Communications Center and Yvonne Lima is just 30 minutes into her 12-hour graveyard shift. The center, which answers emergency and non-emergency phone calls for both Richmond and El Cerrito, is in charge of dispatching police, fire, and medical services. “911 what’s the address of your emergency?” echoes through the room, which is smaller than the 911 dispatch centers depicted on television. Brief alarm sounds blare in unison every 30 seconds from speakers…
A fire spread to two and a half acres in Point Molate Thursday night. No one was injured and no structures were damaged, but the fire kept some residents from getting home. East Bay Regional Parks District Fire Department dispatched a helicopter, which dumped 13 buckets of water on the blaze, according to an East Bay Regional firefighter. The Richmond Fire Department did not return calls for comment. The fire, on old naval property, began with a vehicle parked on…
Richmond City Council took a big step this month toward an alternative emergency response program that would give residents an option to calling the police. Expected to start in August as an 18-month pilot, the Community Crisis Response Program will serve as a non-police emergency service, responding to mental health or low-level emergency 911 calls such as family disputes or wellness checks. The decision comes after Oakland and Contra Costa County put similar programs in place. Since the murders of…
Nine years after Richard “Pedie” Perez III died at the hands of a Richmond police officer, the department will honor Perez’s memory by requiring officers to participate in new cultural sensitivity training, beginning in November. On Sept. 14, 2014, Perez was shot and killed by then-Richmond Police Officer Wallace Jensen outside of Uncle Sam’s Liquor Store on Cutting Boulevard. He was unarmed and nonviolent, according to six witnesses. Jensen retired from the department and the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office…
Record rainfall last winter mitigated California’s severe drought and brought a slow start to fire season. But the wet weather hasn’t reduced the threat. The heavy downpours that bombarded the Bay Area and the relatively cool weather that followed kept vegetation from drying out in the spring and early summer. But as the summer wears on, that vegetation will become fuel for fires, said Ranyee Chiang, director of the Meteorology and Measurement Division at Bay Area Air Quality Management District. …
The wet weather is about to turn wild in the Bay Area, as Wednesday morning rain makes way for an afternoon of gusty wind and downpours and an evening where thunderstorms and even hail are possible. The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch and high-wind warnings in effect until Thursday afternoon, with the potential for 1 to 4 inches of rain over the course of two days. And more is on the way, with another atmospheric river threatening…
A recently formed nonprofit and new technologies are in place to help Contra Costa County respond to fires more quickly and effectively. But the effort won’t work without the public’s help. Earlier this year, the West Contra Costa Fire Safe Council formed to protect the area against wildfires. It is led by four officers and an advisory board, which includes multiple fire departments as well as various park and recreation districts, PG&E and fire safety councils from neighboring counties. “One…
Crackling sounds fill the air as the flames eat up the building, the trees, the land. The smoke is so thick you cannot see where you are going. Your helmet blocks the view further, pressing down on you like the rest of the 45 pounds of gear protecting you from the intense heat and toxic fumes. A wave of claustrophobia and fear rises. That’s when your training kicks in. “You can’t be afraid of the dark and you can’t be…