Fireworks in Santa Rosa around the time of earthquake set Twitter ablaze

Gunshots and an earthquake? That's what followers of the Santa Rosa Police Department's Twitter account wanted to know early Thursday.

The Santa Rosa Police Department sent out a message at 3:03 a.m. on Twitter confirming the magnitude 4.5 earthquake that rocked much of the Bay Area minutes earlier at 2:39 a.m.

Local residents responded to that message with questions about “a bunch of gunshots” heard around the same time as the earthquake was felt.

Police officials quickly replied with the tweet, “It turns out that those were actually fireworks.”