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A whole lot of fireworks and a whole lot of fires: SoCal firefighters had a busy July Fourth
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So-called safe and sane fireworks are legal in a few Southern California cities, including Hawthorne. But in most of the area, all fireworks are illegal.
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Fireworks were identified as the possible cause of the Rancho Fire that burned near homes in Laguna Beach on Monday, but that was just one of the fireworks-related fires in recent days.
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A whole lot fireworks and a whole lot of fires: SoCal firefighters had a busy July 4th
The Orange County, L.A. County, and L.A. city fire departments all saw huge upticks in fires on the notoriously busy Fourth of July holiday.
“We’re double-digit busier than we typically are handling fire-type calls and injury-type calls related to fireworks than on any other day,” said Brian Humphrey, a spokesperson for the L.A. Fire Department.
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Beyond igniting fires, fireworks also account for a big spike in pollution around the Fourth of July. And this year, tragedy struck in Orange County when an 8-year-old girl was killed by an errant firework. Elsewhere, fireworks stockpiles exploded in Pacoima and Simi Valley, killing two people and damaging several homes.
L.A. County Fire responded to 333 fires on July 4th this year — compared with 255 last year and 197 the year before that, according to Capt. Sheila Kelliher Berkoh. For comparison, a few Fridays ago on June 13, they responded to 23.
The Orange County Fire Authority responded to 51 fire calls. On average, they respond to about seven fire-related incidents a day, said Capt. Greg Barta, a department spokesperson.
None of the departments could definitively say how many of those fires were fireworks-related.
For instance, Humphrey said that the LAFD responded to 181 rubbish fires, a category that includes fireworks-related incidents and fires at homeless encampments.
The good news is that fireworks-related calls decline almost immediately after the holiday.
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That is, until the next big holiday for fireworks: New Year’s Eve.
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