No damage or injuries as 4.2 quake rattles East Bay

The East Bay was jolted Thursday night by a magnitude 4.2 earthquake centered one mile northeast of the city of Lafayette, but local authorities said there were no initial reports of injuries or damage.

“It shook me out of bed,” said Steve Limrite, a dispatcher with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.

He said the temblor hit as he was taking a rest break in his 24-hour shift at the agency’s communications center in Pleasant Hill, about 10 miles northeast of Lafayette. “It was a very long jolt, continual,” Limrite said.

A preliminary report on the U.S. Geological Survey’s website said the temblor struck at 8:40 p.m. and characterized the event as a “light earthquake” with a depth of 10.3 miles.

Shaking could be felt for 10 to 15 seconds in Berkeley. The quake also jolted Walnut Creek, which is three miles from the epicenter, and Concord, which is 10 miles away, and it was felt across the bay in San Francisco.

The quake followed a 3.4 magnitude temblor Feb. 23 centered two miles from Berkeley.

Lt. David Villalobos of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department said that as of 45 minutes after the quake, he had received no reports of damage.

“It was a hard-hitting jolt, with people reporting books knocked off shelves, that sort of thing, but no damage as far as we know,” he said.

John Sylvia, a police sergeant in Martinez, the county seat, said authorities in his community promptly checked 50 important civic structures, including hospitals, police stations and water treatment facilities, but found no problems.

Still, Sylvia said, within moments after the temblor struck, his agency was “inundated with phone calls from people who wanted to know if we just had an earthquake and if there were going to be aftershocks -- as if we knew!”

In fact, several minor 1.3 to 2.8 aftershocks occurred within about an hour of the quake.

As a precautionary measure, Bay Area Rapid Transit system trains were temporarily stopped. Meanwhile, the California Highway Patrol reported shortly after the initial quake that no bridges in the area sustained damage.

The earthquake shook basketball fans at Haas Pavilion on the UC Berkeley campus.

The crowd issued a collective “oooh” as the building briefly shuddered during a timeout in a game against the University of Arizona then cheered loudly while officials briefly delayed resuming the game.

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john.glionna@latimes.com

stuart.silverstein@latimes.com

Glionna reported from San Francisco and Silverstein reported from Los Angeles. The Associated Press contributed to this report.