TREASURE VALLEY, Idaho — While many were enjoying fireworks and backyard barbecues this Fourth of July weekend, firefighters were responding to numerous calls across the Treasure Valley.
The Ada County Sheriff's Office reported 1,018 calls between 6 p.m. on July 4 to 2 a.m. on July 5 with 32 of the calls being grass fires.
Almost 300 calls were firework-related in Ada County as many fireworks were set off Sunday night.
The Meridian Fire Department reported no burn injuries but did respond to approximately 20 grass fires. According to Deputy Chief Joe Bongiorno, the evening was fairly quiet as there were roughly 37 calls and about 17 of them were medical-related or car accidents.
Both the Meridian Fire Department and Nampa Fire Department said this has not been the busiest holiday weekend crews have had, but they still responded to a significant number of calls
“Fourth of July is very busy. So it's not uncommon to approach the 100 calls in a 24-hour period for the Nampa Fire Department on days like this," Deputy Chief Chris King said. "So, it wasn’t the busiest, but it was plenty busy especially in those evening hours when the fireworks were going off. The crews were pretty busy.”
Nampa Fire reported about 55 calls for Sunday night's shift and around 110 for the weekend. There were three structure fires and Nampa Fire says two of them were caused by improper disposal of fireworks in garbage cans.
