Firefighters have a busy Fourth of July
"Everything kind of hit all at once. We had trucks crisscrossing each other throughout the city."
FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — Fargo and West Fargo firefighters respond to more than 25 calls of fires over the Fourth of July holiday.
“We had 15 calls for actual fires where there was some flame present which is well above normal,” Fargo Fire Department Battalion Chief Joe Mangin said.
“We had somewhere about 13 calls for the day. Everything kind of hit all at once. We had trucks crisscrossing each other throughout the city. I’d say four or five of those calls were all within an hour,” West Fargo Fire Department’s Chief Dan Fuller said.
Within the 28 calls they received all together, only two resulted in serious bodily harm. One person in Fargo lost two fingers after a firework exploded in their hand.
And in West Fargo a woman experienced severe tissue damage.
“We had a 21-year-old female who got hit with a large caliber firework in the right buttocks. It was a blast injury, she was only four to five feet away when the firework went off so she had a large area of tissue loss. So we got there and treated her appropriately and called FM ambulance and they took her to the trauma center at Sanford,” said Fuller.
As for severe fire damage, firefighters were able to act quickly in almost all scenarios.
“Only one of the structure fires we had last night resulted in significant damage and that was to a garage in a row of garages at an apartment complex,” said Mangin.
The fire damaged three garages at the Sterling Park Apartments in South Fargo. Fortunately no injuries were reported.
Mangin says even though fireworks are illegal within city limits, Sunday was a pretty busy day.
“We try to put the message out there as clearly as we can but obviously people are going to do things that are going to celebrate the Fourth of July and not always necessarily follow the rules,” Mangin said.
Both fire department officials stress the importance of heading warnings when it comes to fire safety.
Officials warn of the severe dry conditions and are reminding people it is illegal to continue lighting up fireworks throughout the metro.
