We get very reliable flowering and fruiting from Pyracantha ( Firethorn ) here in the San Francisco Bay area. I had one specimen in training that underwent a lot of die back. One of the problems with Pyracantha is fireblight - a bacterial disease that causes wilting and drying of branches and can be spread from tree to tree by insects or birds.
Before and after trimming pyracantha, sanitize your tools in a 10% bleach-in-water solution and cover all pruning wounds. If you prune away a dead branch, sanitze again before resuming the pruning or you could spread the bacteria.
Fireblight can affect a number of hosts, including pear, rosacae (rose family including many fruiting plants), hawthorn, quince, & cotoneaster
FIREBLIGHT:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/planth/pestnote/fire.htm
I remember there was a large thicket of pyracantha near one of the Junior Colleges in the area. The fruit would ferment on the bushes, and (reportedly) would cause birds to become drunk and crash into the large plate glass windows of the building.
http://www.urbanlegends.com/animals/drunken_birds.html