Alex Gecan

Berkeley

Freelance Reporter at Freelance

Senior Public Safety Reporter at Berkeleyside

Senior reporter, public safety, @berkeleyside. Formerly @marinij, @AsburyParkPress, @ConnPost, @StamAdvocate, @Middletownpress and @NewOrleansMag.

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Articles

No plants, no wood fences: Berkeley bans anything flammable within 5 feet of many hills homes

1 week ago | berkeleyside.org | Alex Gecan

Homeowners in two Berkeley Hills neighborhoods have just over eight months to clear 5-foot fire-protection buffers around their homes and sheds — or risk hundreds of dollars in fines every day. The City Council agreed to a new set of fire safety rules in an unanimous vote Tuesday. The Berkeley Fire Department had proposed a slew of changes to city ordinances, specifically the sections that relate to fire code.
Berkeley police text scandal final report vote could bring 'closure.' Will it change anything?

1 week ago | berkeleyside.org | Alex Gecan

What could be the final chapter in a years-old texting scandal in a Berkeley Police Department unit could be written by the City Council on Tuesday. Berkeley’s civilian police oversight body, the Police Accountability Board, made a slew of policy recommendations to BPD and other requests of the council after investigating racist and anti-homeless text messages between members of the department’s bike team.
Argument over motorcycle ends in arrests

1 week ago | middletownpress.com | Alex Gecan

STAMFORD — A couple got into a scratching match when one refused to stop joyriding on the other’s unregistered motorcycle. Police arrested 18-year-old Ledy Escobar and 26-year-old Josef Hernandez Saturday morning after a neighbor called the police to report a loud argument in the couple’s Diaz Street apartment.
Downtown Berkeley fire torches East Bay Media Center

1 week ago | berkeleyside.org | Alex Gecan

A structure fire caved in the roof of the East Bay Media Center in downtown Berkeley and forced evacuations in nearby apartment buildings early Monday morning. Callers reported the fire, on the 1900 block of Addison Street, around 3:15 a.m., Berkeley Fire spokesperson Dafina Dailey said in an emailed statement. Police and firefighters found the media center “fully engulfed in flames,” with “a heavy amount of fire blowing out of the front and roof of the building” when they arrived, Dailey said.
Strict new rules banning vegetation and wooden decks within 5 feet of homes in parts of the Berkeley Hills could be approved this week

1 week ago | berkeleyside.org | Alex Gecan |Nico Savidge

The Berkeley City Council could adopt a slate of new wildfire safety measures on Tuesday, including strict regulations that prohibit flammable materials within 5 feet of homes in some hillside neighborhoods.
Berkeley police shot a man in a standoff at University and McGee

1 week ago | berkeleyside.org | Alex Gecan

A 33-year-old man is in critical condition after a Berkeley police officer shot him Sunday morning. Police say he was threatening officers with a gun. Police and paramedics first went to the 1700 block of University Avenue, near McGee Avenue, after 911 callers reported a woman screaming for help inside an apartment there, Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Jessica Perry said in an email. The man came out of the apartment holding a gun and “made threats to shoot officers,” Perry wrote.
Stamford Academy graduates 34

1 week ago | stamfordadvocate.com | Alex Gecan

Stamford Academy Graduation at the Domus auditorium in Stamford, Conn., Wednesday, June 17, 2015. Bob Luckey / Staff PhotographerStamford Academy graduating senior Laquariah Corder poses by the school's lockers earlier this month. Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut MediaAbove left: Stamford Academy graduate LaQuariah Corder, center, gets a kiss from her aunt, Mary Jordan, left, and her mother, Lavette McMillian, right, during the Stamford Academy Graduation at the Domus auditorium on Wednesday.
Civic Center Park now almost entirely fenced off

1 week ago | berkeleyside.org | Alex Gecan

Berkeley has moved more than a dozen camp residents out of Civic Center Park and into housing, and fenced off the few remaining grassy areas there. Barriers now stretch all the way to the sidewalks on three sides of the downtown park, and to the alley behind city hall on the fourth.
Channing Way apartment fire displaces one near Berkeley High School

1 week ago | berkeleyside.org | Alex Gecan

Berkeley firefighters knocked down a fire in a two-story apartment building on Channing Way near Martin Luther King Jr. Way Thursday evening. Several people began calling 911 around 6:50 p.m. to report the fire, BFD Deputy Chief Keith May said in an emailed statement. When fire crews arrived, they found “black smoke coming from an apartment,” he said. The person living at that apartment was already outside, and was sent to a hospital for observation, May said.
A person died after an apartment fire in South Berkeley on Friday

2 weeks ago | berkeleyside.org | Alex Gecan

One person has died after a two-alarm apartment fire in South Berkeley Friday, the Berkeley Fire Department has confirmed. A 911 caller first reported smoke coming out of a ground-floor apartment in the 1800 block of Derby Street shortly before 5 p.m., BFD Deputy Chief Keith May said in an emailed statement. Someone else told firefighters someone was trapped inside. “Fire crews located the patient in a room with zero visibility where there was active fire,” May said.