‘Quieter’ Fourth still kept responders busy in Vancouver

The Fourth of July is always a busy day for emergency responders. Fireworks complaints and fires of varying significance are mainstays for the holiday, but this year was different due to the blanket ban on fireworks in Vancouver city limits.

“The season was definitely quieter than last year. Most people up until the Fourth were following the new law,” said Vancouver Fire Marshal Heidi Scarpelli. “On the Fourth of July, we found there were people who took their chances and tried to elude the new law.”

Most of those people knew about the law and apologized, she said. Her office took a “zero tolerance” policy toward anyone illegally discharging fireworks in the city. By Wednesday morning, the Vancouver Fire Marshal’s Office had issued 59 citations and seized 44 fireworks. (In some cases, the fireworks were already spent and the fire marshal had no more to seize.) Each citation came with a $500 fine. Most citations were given on the Fourth of July, Scarpelli said.

Those seized fireworks will be kept in a magazine designed to hold explosives until adjudication, and burned in a disposal tube after that.

In October 2015, the Vancouver City Council banned the use and sale of fireworks following a particularly dry and hot summer. The ban didn’t take effect until after July 2016. That year, Scarpelli said, Vancouver firefighters were so tied up with fires at one point that they had to suspend going to medical calls for 90 minutes.

She said that while the law is new and not everybody followed it this year, people will become more accustomed to it and more compliant the longer the ban is in effect.

Her office launched an education campaign before the holiday that included spreading the info via social media, newspapers and electronic reader boards on heavily trafficked roads. Fireworks stands in Clark County that were close to Vancouver displayed fliers about the new law.

“We really tried to get the word out,” Scarpelli said. “Overall, I feel it was very successful.”

Anybody interested in having their fireworks disposed for free can call 311 for more info.

As usual, the number of calls to 911 swelled over the holiday.

Dispatchers with Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency received 2,111 calls in a 10-hour span between 5 p.m. Tuesday and 3 a.m. Wednesday, according to Eric Frank, the agency’s emergency management coordinator. That included 480 calls during the 60 minutes between 9 and 10 p.m. on the Fourth of July.

At one point, the Vancouver Fire Marshal’s Office had 140 pending fireworks complaints.

“Some of it felt easier. Some of it wasn’t,” Frank said.

Every year, CRESA has more people than usual work on the evening of the Fourth of July. Frank said emergency dispatchers received calls from people misunderstanding the difference between the county and the cities. Somebody in unincorporated Clark County would call to complain about fireworks being discharged, thinking they were located in Vancouver.

In some areas, one side of Fourth Plain Boulevard is in the city and the other side is in the county.

People were asked to call 311 to report fireworks being discharged in Vancouver or outside of the allotted hours in any other jurisdiction. One thing people should keep in mind, Frank said, is that the same people answer 911 and the non-emergency line 311. So, too many calls at one time to those two lines can jam up dispatchers.

Fireworks injuries

Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center reported that nine people came into its emergency department with fireworks-related injuries on the Fourth of July, spokeswoman Kelly Love said. Five of them were adults, and four were children. All of them were treated and released for mostly first-degree burns as well as a few second-degree burns to their arms and hands.

Randy Querin, spokesman for PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, said on Wednesday that the hospital’s emergency team in Vancouver had dealt with one fireworks-related injury so far. However, a sister hospital in Longview, PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center, had seen three people with fireworks-related injuries.

The Humane Society for Southwest Washington has taken in 47 stray animals since July 1. In prior years, the animal shelter saw about 85 or 90 stray animals during the holiday week, which is about 80 percent higher than a normal week.

July 5 is always the busiest day for people to bring in strays or to pick up animals they lost.

Baby boom

The Fourth of July wasn’t all fires, fines and singed fingers.

While enjoying the Ridgefield parade, a pregnant woman felt her water break. One of her friends, an emergency room nurse, alerted a police officer and flagged down firefighters with Clark County Fire & Rescue.

Capt. Ryan Eamonn and Firefighter Kenny Bertt were getting around on bicycles because that’s “only practical way” to cut through the crowds, said Division Chief Tim Dawdy. The small city’s population swells during Fourth of July festivities and there’s one main road in and out of town.

“Once you get in Ridgefield during the parade, you’re stuck. There’s no way to get out of Ridgefield,” Dawdy said.

Eamonn and Bertt were able to clear enough space to escort the woman and her friend to their car. From there, the group — joined by a Clark County Fire & Rescue SUV — navigated through back roads to a spot where her husband was waiting, along with an ambulance and fire engine. The couple then drove to a hospital.

Throughout the whole ordeal, the woman was surrounded by firefighters in case something happened.

“It was a beautiful thing,” Dawdy said.

Another pregnancy-related incident was reported at the Independence Day celebration at Fort Vancouver, but details were not available by press time Wednesday.