Firefighters enjoy calm Fourth

COLUMBIA BASIN — This year, the Fourth of July wasn’t too bad for local firefighters.

“We had a couple of brush fires, but in comparison with years past, not bad,” said Moses Lake Fire Chief Brett Bastian.

The combination of hot, dry weather, parties and people setting off fireworks, legal or otherwise, often makes Independence Day a tough one for fire departments.  But this year Adams County Fire District 5, which covers Othello, had only three small incidents, according to Chief Gary Lebacken. Grant County Fire District 8, based in Mattawa, was called out only once, on a mutual aid call to help District 10 in Beverly, said GCFD 8 Business Manager Barbara Davis.

“It was much quieter than I expected it to be,” Davis said. “I know there were a lot more homeowners shooting off fireworks, but we had nothing get out of hand.” 

Grant County Fire District 7 Captain Josh Chambers said there was a little bit of activity in his district, which includes Soap Lake, Coulee City and the corridor in between.

“There were a couple of spots toward the Blue Lake area of the highway, small grass fires likely due to fireworks,” Chambers said. “We also had an early morning fire up above Highway 17. Likely fireworks were the cause of that as well. Fortunately, that was kind of stuck in a ravine and due to a small backburn we were able to contain that pretty quickly.”

That fire, at the north end of Soap Lake near the Smokiam RV Resort, grew to 0.93 acres, according to an earlier statement by GCFD 7.

“We didn’t have any fires in town, and illegal fireworks were kept to a minimum,” Chambers said. “So that was good.”

Moses Lake’s city celebration was held a day early, July 3 and, in a departure from custom, the pyrotechnicians the city contracted to do the fireworks set them off from a boat on the lake rather than a vacant field on the lake shore. That helped, Bastian said.

“That was the first time in my 32 years here that we haven’t had a fire at the launch site,” he said. “Even that was fairly quiet. So that was a good move.”

Several fire departments emphasized public engagement and education before and during the holiday, which also helped reduce the fire risk.

“We did rolling patrols in Desert Aire and Mattawa,” Davis said. “Just something we always do.”

They weren’t alone in their proactive approach.

“We had most of our apparatus out on patrol and talking to folks about fireworks,” Chambers said. “We did talk to a few groups of people inside the city limits who were lighting off fireworks and apparently were unaware of the regulations … Everybody we spoke to was pretty understanding about why we can’t allow fireworks in the city.”

Bastian said that the Fourth falling in the middle of the week rather than a weekend, and cooler temperatures than some years in the days leading up to the holiday, likely also contributed to a quieter Independence Day than usual.

“It either is really quiet and not much happens, like this year, or it's absolutely crazy,” Davis said Friday. “There's no in-between. It's just every hand available (has to) go and nobody gets to enjoy their own fireworks, or it's like it was last night. One or the other.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.