Fourth of July fires, citations up from last year

Just as quickly as they started, the celebrations and festivities of Independence Day have come to an end, which turned out to be a busy day for the Tulare County and Porterville Fire Department, not only for calls for service, but also fireworksrelated incidents.

In Porterville, the amount of illegal firework citations and fire incidents reported were up from last year.

This year 11 personnel from the fire department were out on patrol, and four of them were teamed with four police officers. Three engines and two patrols from the fire department were dealing with all the fire incidents along with the rest of the first response teams.

The Porterville Police and Fire Departments teamed up and circulated around town, making sure no illegal fireworks were fired.

A total of 26 administrative citations were issued by the Porterville Fire Department related to the use of illegal fireworks, compared to only 11 citations administered last year.

The cost for a administrative citation for the use of illegal fireworks is about $1,500.

There were nine fires related to fireworks, including grass fires, two trees caught on fire and one fence attached to a structure.

Jason Clark, Porterville Fire Department Captain said, “We had no injuries, no major property damage, just some property damage.”

Clark said last year there were only two fire-related incidents, all having to do with aerial fireworks.

This year, three of the nine fires were started by legal fireworks that were discarded improperly in the trash can.

“They didn't put them in a bucket of water basically and they stuck them in their trash can and let their city trash can on fire,” Clark said. “It could've went bad, but it was a lot better than the whole house burning down for sure.”

The rest of the firework-related fires were from debris falling from illegal aerial fireworks.

“Due to activities with aerial fireworks, we experience a high volume of fires,” Clark said. “We encourage the public to refrain from those activities and those type of fireworks.”

Tulare County Fire responded to 34 medical aid and traffic accidents, 15 fire related calls, 14 fireworks related calls, and seven

other agency assist calls around the county, according to a statement released Thursday. The holiday started as a busy day with a two-alarm fire in the area of Avenue 412 and Drive 112 in the community of Seville. The fire spread from grass and debris to two residential structures.

Red Cross was contacted for one of the families, and TCFD was assisted by two units from Orange Cove Fire District. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Fire personnel throughout the county responded to numerous grass and debris fires. Many of the grass fires were kept to a small area by the quick response of TCFD units.

Six of the fires were related to the use of both “Safe and Sane” fireworks and illegal fireworks.

TCFD Prevention Officers were also out enforcing the legal use of “Safe and Sane” fireworks. There were a total of ten administrative citations issued in relation to the use of illegal fireworks.

Fire Captain Joanne Bear said, “The amount of calls for service from last year to this year it appears to be comparable.”