Police, fire department kept busy over Forth of July weekend

Across the Las Vegas Valley, police and fire departments put out firework-related blazes and arrested suspected impaired drivers during a busy holiday weekend.

The Henderson Fire Department responded to 13 firework-related calls between July 1 and July 5, spokesperson Madeleine Skains wrote in a message Tuesday.

Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said that for the 24-hour period starting at 12 a.m. Monday, the department responded to 239 calls for service. That represents a nearly 18 percent decrease in calls for the same time frame on July 4, 2021, when the fire department responded to 290 calls.

“Nothing major,” Szymanski said. “We had way less in emergency medical calls.”

This year’s holiday celebration, he said, “didn’t last as long. It ended sooner, people knocked off sooner, and it didn’t seem as intense as it did in years past.”

The Clark County Fire Department reported substantially higher calls compared to the previous weekend, Assistant Fire Chief Dan Heenan wrote in a message. From Friday through Monday, the department responded to 204 fire calls, compared to 51 the prior weekend.

North Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Nino Galloway said the agency responded to 203 emergency medical services and fire calls from 8 a.m. Monday until 8 a.m. Tuesday.

“Palm tree fires, pine tree fires and wash fires,” Galloway said. “Dumpster fire after dumpster fire. What’s causing those are spent fireworks containers that weren’t watered down.”

American Red Cross of Southern Nevada spokesman Keith Paul said five residential fires in the Las Vegas Valley prompted the agency to offer assistance to 24 people on Monday and Tuesday.

Las Vegas police conducted a DUI Blitz Saturday night, stopping 116 vehicles and arresting 16 people for suspected drunken driving. Fifty-nine people were cited.

Booking logs showed 46 people were booked into the Clark County Detention Center from Friday through Monday on drunken driving charges.

In Mohave County, 59 boaters were cited and 15 were arrested on charges of reckless operation of a watercraft, the sheriff’s office wrote in a statement. Two boaters were arrested for operating under the influence.

“The Independence Day weekend on Lake Havasu and the Colorado River in Mohave County saw a heavy increase in boating traffic,” the sheriff’s department wrote.

Deputies recorded five calls for search and rescues, four medical calls, two boat crashes with injuries and two without injuries, the sheriff’s office said.

On Monday, one boater called for help after the passenger fell off a watercraft and was missing. A helicopter and several patrol and fire department boats searched for the missing person, who was swimming for about 30 minutes with a life jacket on before they were rescued. The driver was booked on a charge of operating under the influence.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter. Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.