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2015 comes in with a bang, not a fire

County reports 100 noise complaints but no fireworks-related blazes

By Stephanie Rice
Published: January 2, 2015, 4:00pm

Evidenced by the booms that could be heard locally before the ball dropped in Times Square in New York City, some residents in Clark County made fireworks part of their New Year’s Eve celebrations.

The county saw about 100 noise complaints made to 911 starting around 5 p.m. and extending into the wee hours of New Year’s Day, according to emergency dispatch logs.

About one-quarter of those calls came in to 911 within 10 minutes of midnight.

None of those calls were patched through to Clark County Assistant Fire Marshal Richard Martin, who was the lone on-call investigator. He said he also hadn’t heard of any fires sparked by fireworks.

Fireworks were illegal on Dec. 31 everywhere in Clark County except inside the city limits of Battle Ground, Camas and Washougal, where people could shoot them off from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. There weren’t any noise complaints in Battle Ground, though, and there was just one each in Camas in Washougal.

The bulk of the complaints were scattered around Vancouver and unincorporated Clark County. However, county policymakers don’t allocate the resources to enforce the laws, Martin said.

Revelers in unincorporated Clark County can legally continue the practice to ring in 2016, though, as county commissioners voted in September to lift the ban on Dec. 31.

The new law couldn’t take effect for one year, Martin said.

While discharging fireworks is less common this time of year compared with the Fourth of July, the activity still comes with potential dangers, Martin said.

In the summer, fireworks can ignite dry grass. In the winter, people who don’t want to go out into the cold, may light fireworks from their garage and unwittingly set the garage on fire, he said.

Besides the fireworks complaints, there were a handful of complaints about noisy parties in Clark County.

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