EVERETT — The Fourth of July holiday weekend was accompanied by hundreds of fireworks-related 911 calls in Snohomish County, according to emergency dispatch centers.
Historically, the holiday is the busiest day of the year for emergency activity, said Kurt Mills, executive director for SNOPAC, the dispatch center serving Everett and north and east Snohomish County.
SNOPAC received 604 fireworks-related calls this year, compared to 585 last year.
Those numbers are high, even for a Friday in July, Mills said. The peak time for the calls was between 9 and 11 p.m.
SNOCOM, which serves southwest Snohomish County, received 348 firework-related calls, according to Operations Manager Karen McKay. That’s compared to 210 last year.
More than half of SNOCOM’s calls came from Lynnwood, where Fourth of July fireworks have been banned starting in 2015. Lynnwood was followed by Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace.
More than 35 fires were reported in SNOCOM’s service area, including a trash-bin fire, a house fire and two brush fires.
Fireworks also were being considered as the possible cause of a brush fire outside Snohomish that burned on Saturday and Sunday.
No serious fireworks-related incidents were reported to the Everett Police Department or Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, officials said.
Harborview Medical Center in Seattle treated 49 people for fireworks injuries, a spokeswoman said. The victims mostly had wounds to their hands and eyes.
Marysville firefighters responded to about a dozen fireworks calls over the weekend, including three cases in which people were injured, Fire Marshal Tom Maloney said.
Mukilteo police handled nearly a dozen fireworks complaints on Friday evening, according to the department blotters.
“In the instances where they actually found people lighting fireworks, they issued warnings. Everybody they contacted agreed to stop,” officials wrote.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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