23 fires on Fourth of July ‘abnormally alarming,’ Kansas City fire officials say
Kansas City celebrated the Fourth of July with a fiery bang that kept the Kansas City Fire Department busy putting out 23 fires Sunday.
“It was pretty ridiculous last night,” Kansas City Fire Department spokesman Jason Spreitzer said Monday.
That many fires, including five house fires that were started by fireworks, is “abnormally alarming,” he said. The first fire was reported about 6 p.m. on Sunday and calls kept coming through Monday morning, Spreitzer said.
In comparison, Overland Park Fire Department officials reported a quiet holiday weekend with only two grass fires in Merriam that might have been started by fireworks, though no exact cause is known, said spokesman Jason Rhodes. “We did not run any structure fires here,” Rhodes said in an email.
Spreitzer noted that it was the first Fourth of July without the COVID-19 restrictions of last summer that canceled big community fireworks shows and kept many people separated and at home.
This was “people’s first real time in large gatherings and to see their families and we had different circumstances,” he said.
The 23 fires included seven house fires, a fire at a commercial building and 15 small fires including trash and dumpster fires, he said.
In a typical day the department would put out about six fires, “not 23,” Spreitzer said. “And you might see two of those are house fires.”
He said there were no injuries reported with any of the fires. He did not know yet how many injuries linked to fireworks were treated by emergency responders.
Emergency room physicians say they treat fireworks injuries beyond the Fourth of July. The fire department, too, puts out fires after the holiday when people to continue to burn through their stashes, Spreitzer said.
“We’re going to ask people not to do it,” Spreitzer said.
Fireworks are illegal in Kansas City.
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