Lots of booms, but no carnage

Mayor Patty Lent saw and heard more fireworks this Fourth of July in Bremerton than she has ever witnessed before. But, even though things may have gotten a little more loud in the city, area fire crews had a relatively quiet day.

Bremerton firefighters responded to a handful of calls and Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue didn’t respond to a single fireworks related incident. Unless, of course, you count one super-scared dog.

“We did go on a call for a dog that was scared and got kind of bound up in his kennel in the wires,” said CKFR Capt. Dave Stebor. “It was in a pen inside the house and tried to get out, but got itself stuck. The owners couldn’t get it out, so we used the bolt cutters and cut the wires of the pen.”

Stebor said that the dog’s owners had called their vet for advice who told them to call the fire department.

“It wasn’t even as exciting as having a cat stuck in a tree,” Stebor noted.

Things were about as unexciting in Bremerton.

“Overall it was a relatively quiet day,” said Bremerton Fire Department Chief Al Duke. “We only had four fireworks related incidents. The biggest one was a hedge caught on fire. You could see that one from quite a ways and it put off quite a lot of smoke.”

The hedge fire occurred in the 1900 block of Snyder and somebody in the 1900 block of Winfield, meanwhile, put their barbecue coals in a dumpster, Duke said. In addition, Bremerton crews responded to a pile of toilet paper and fireworks burning in the middle of the road in the 1400 block of Gregory Way and they went to a small brush fire on Pine Road.

“You know, we haven’t had a large amount of incidents over the last several years - fire or injury related. It’s been relatively slow,” Duke said.

One reason for that, Duke speculated, may have to do with ramped up efforts by fire inspectors in the two weeks leading up to Independence Day.

“I don’t know, I think it may be from a little crack-down,” he said. “We switched our inspectors, who usually work 8 to 5, but started working from 9 to 10 o’clock just patrolling and taking care of noise complaints trying to track those down. There are a lot of noise complaints, but as far fires and injuries we haven’t seen many. And there’s been very little property damage.”

 

Contact Bremerton Patriot Staff writer Kevan Moore at kmoore@bremertonpatriot.com or 360-308-9161 ext. 5054.

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