Illegal fireworks display sparks Lunch Box blaze

By Estela Fuentes
The Guardsman

City College police officers responded to reports of shots fired at the Ocean Campus Lunch Box restaurant on May 6 and discovered that the source of the noise was not a gun, but an unlicensed fireworks display on the roof which resulted in a small fire.

Firefighters quickly doused the flames, but police evacuated the area and Cloud Circle was closed off when firefighters found an pyrotechnic device on the roof of the Lunch Box. CCPD chief Andre Barns said the incident is being investigated as arson by the city police and fire departments as well as City College police.

“This was not just a normal fireworks display. It was very large,” a City College police officer who declined to state his name because he was not authorized to speak said. “Now it’s looking like it was absolutely something that was set up.”

City College officers called the San Francisco fire and police departments when they realized there was a fire.

The Bomb Squad was called in to determine whether or not the device, which started the fire and may have been a triggering mechanism for the fireworks, was still a danger. Two K-9 units were brought in to search the perimeter around the restaurant for more explosives, but found nothing.

“At first, I thought someone threw a grenade up here,” Lunch Box employee Baline Wong said. The restaurant reopened briefly before police shut it down and deemed it a crime scene.

“There was hella fireworks. It was pretty dope though,” City College student Brock Smith said. “All we heard was a loud bang and we looked up and it was fireworks.”

Several officers on scene said because of the size and complexity of the pyrotechnics, they had to have been set up in advance.

“Why would someone spend this kind of money on something like this?” CCPD officer Rachele Hakes said.

Footage from security cameras contained no evidence, Hakes said. Police officials did not release any specific description of the device arson investigators took from the scene.

“This wasn’t kids,” Hakes said. “This was professional fireworks.”

Lunch Box employees told police that they have not had any altercations or arguments with customers that would encourage retaliation.

Despite repeated attempts, representatives from the San Francisco fire and police departments refused to comment.