July 4 was a busy night for the city fireworks task force

It was a loud, late night for the city’s newly formed Fireworks Task Force.

The group of investigators from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire responded to 131 complaint calls regarding Independence Day fireworks Saturday. And as the city reported in a news release Sunday morning, “These are the calls the [task force] was actually able to respond to.”

Just after midnight, there were 125 additional calls that investigators and firefighters had to put off because of the seriousness of others.

For example, a fight between neighbors on Lowrie Street in Troy Hill resulted in up to five people being transported to the hospital, one with serious injuries.

Fireworks caused a large brush fire on Eckert Street in Marshall-Shadeland. Also on the North Side, police responded to complaints of huge fireworks displays on East Ohio and Rhine streets as well as in Northview Heights.

And that was the case in neighborhoods around the city.

On Jacunda Street and Orchard Place in Knoxville, two block parties featured elaborate fireworks displays, and the Jacunda fireworks are blamed for a two-alarm fire at a house on Orchard Place. The parties created so much debris on the streets that city Public Works will be called in to help clean it up.

Units responded twice to several small fires — on the street hockey surface, basketball courts and playground — at Hazelwood’s Lewis Park, which was littered with fireworks debris.

A house caught fire on Bucyrus Street in the West End when a box tipped and shot fireworks into the side of the house.

There were several fireworks display box fires as well as small brush and dumpster fires throughout the city. Several trees caught fire, too.

Police issued several citations, and charges will be pursued for some of the more serious incidents.

Complaint calls still were coming in late Sunday morning.

The task force was created in June, when fireworks complaints already were coming in at almost 400% more than last year, and with many large municipal fireworks displays canceled due to the COVID19 pandemic.