OGDEN, Utah (ABC4) – Today is the first day some Utahners can start lighting fireworks, but cities that have banned the use of fireworks, like Ogden, are reminding residents to wait until next year .
“It’s the perfect storm, and we may use that term too often, but we have the extreme drought, high heat, and low humidity,” Ogden City Fire Marshal Kevin Brown told ABC4. “We had more red flag days in June than we normally see in a whole summer.”
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Ogden City is restricting fireworks across the city, but firefighters like Kevin Brown are still preparing for a busy weekend.
“On a typical July 4th weekend, we have around 20 calls a night, and most of them are due to fireworks,” he said.
Brown said this weekend the department will be conducting additional patrols to write quotes and remind people of the extreme risk of fire that exists even within city limits. All of this to hopefully avoid a fire like the one that broke out earlier this week and destroyed houses and an apartment building.
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“According to the surveillance camera … the grass ignited so easily and then just started to spread, and it literally only took a spark.” He stated. “Well, we’ll take care of that.”
Brown said in a normal year, although the department responds to dozens of small fires over the holiday weekend, fire officials aren’t too concerned about major fires in city limits. However, due to the extreme drought, this is not the case this year.
“We fear it could get into the grass, spread to the landscaping and the house, and just get out of hand,” he said.
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