Ramped-up fireworks patrols in Vancouver have resulted in just one citation so far this week.
“It’s just been kind of sporadic — the call will come in and we’ll get there within 5 minutes, and there’s nothing in the neighborhood it was called in at,” Vancouver Fire Marshal Heidi Scarpelli said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, deputy fire marshals issued a $250 ticket to a man for shooting off fireworks within Vancouver city limits, where it’s only legal to use fireworks from 9 a.m. to midnight July 4. The man’s defense was he thought he lived in the county, Scarpelli said.
Scarpelli’s office fielded 17 calls in two days from “frustrated and angry” people requesting a fireworks ban due to the potential for fires, the noise and the effect on animals, she said.
The unusually dry spring and summer have parched the region, bleaching out vegetation and creating ample fuel to burn. On Wednesday, six grass fires and five bark dust fires had been reported in Clark County as of 5 p.m., according to 911 dispatch logs.
