PORT ANGELES — Fire crews extinguished a 20- by 20-foot grass fire that started in beach logs near the mouth of the Elwha River on Sunday, Clallam County Fire District No. 2 officials said.
Several other fires, including three that were sparked by lawnmowers, were extinguished before crews arrived on a busy Fourth of July, first responders said.
“We had dozens and dozen of fireworks complaints,” said Karl Hatton, director of Peninsula Communications and Jeffcom 9-1-1.
“We had also multiple fires that were all put out fairly quickly.”
There were 66 fireworks violations reported in Clallam County alone from noon Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday, 49 of which were phoned in between 8 p.m. Sunday and midnight, according to PenCom’s daily call for service log.
“I would have to go back and do comparisons, but I would suggest that it was probably not much busier than any other Fourth,” Hatton said when reached at the dispatch center Monday.
“It’s kind of a typical scenario.”
Clallam County Fire District 2 crews responded to a brush fire west of the Elwha River mouth at 6:33 p.m. Sunday.
“Somebody had made a shelter out of beach logs, a bunch of big beach logs, and that caught on fire and it spread to the grass,” District 2 Fire Chief Jake Patterson said.
Patterson estimated the fire was 20 feet by 20 feet.
Other fires that Port Angeles-area Fire District 2 investigated Sunday were extinguished before crews arrived, Patterson said.
In Sequim, Fire District No. 3 crews responded to several small brush fires, including three that were started by lawnmowers, Chief Ben Andrews said.
“Maybe we need to look at a lawnmower ban instead of a fireworks ban,” Andrews quipped Monday.
“I don’t know that we ran a single fireworks-related call, but we ran a lot of burning lawnmowers and lawnmowers starting fields on fire.”
“It was a pretty tame night,” he added.
Forks Fire Chief Bill Paul said there were no fireworks-related blazes reported on the West End Sunday.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office reported high call volumes due to fireworks complaints but no fireworks-related incidents Sunday, Chief Criminal Deputy Brian King said.
“(Calls for service) probably tally up pretty significantly between the city and the county, but out of all that, nothing remarkable,” King said Monday.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
