The fire department responded to several trash can fires, illegal burnings of firework debris and a serious medical call related to a firework accident on the Fourth of July.
The department responded to one injury related to fireworks, Assistant Fire Chief Chris Hull said. A Eudora man was transported to the hospital by Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical with serious injuries, he said.
The department was dispatched at 10:43 p.m. to the residence, Hull said. Police Chief Wes Lovett said the 56-year-old man was holding a mortar that was not properly igniting. It caused injury to his hand and to his face, he said.
The department responded to about 10 calls that were directly related to fireworks, including being on standby for the city’s firework display.
There were a handful of calls related to trash fires where debris had caught fire, as well as several illegal burns where residents were disposing of debris by burning it – which is illegal in city limits, Hull said.
While driving around town, the department found one unattended fire that residents thought had been put out before they went to bed but was still burning, he said.
“Because we were driving the streets looking out for them, we saw that and were able to alert them and get them to extinguish it before it became a problem,” Hull said.
There were two fires where waste bins were melted: one was in a church parking lot and one was at a residence. The residence had thrown away the debris from used fireworks, which had then ignited while they were inside. A neighbor saw the fire and called 911, Hull said.
The department was able to wake the family up and put out the fire.
“We got really lucky on that, because that trash can was stored up against the house, so that could have been a house fire had the neighbors not been looking around and seeing that quickly,” Hull said.
Hull said that overall residents were friendly and that the department appreciated their cooperation. There was also a reduction in the number of fireworks being lit in the streets, which the department appreciates, he said.
On July 3, there was an incident where the department received a call that a fence was on fire and firefighters were slightly delayed to the scene due to fireworks being set off in the street, Hull said.
When they arrived at the scene, it was a false alarm, but they were able to do some education on why it’s not allowed to do fireworks on city property. Hull said that was the only response that experienced a delay due to this kind of issue.