Firefighters Inundated With Firework Phone Calls

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By Sade Malloy

Summary

Yakima County 911 emergency dispatch centers were flooded with fire phone calls July 4th.

Story Published: Jul 5, 2009 at 7:29 PM PST

Yakima -- Yakima County 911 emergency dispatch centers were flooded with fire phone calls July 4th.

The dispatch centers were inundated, Yakima County firefighters and police tell us they got 900 calls. Firefighters were planning for the worse with extra emergency workers in the Lower Valley and Yakima. They also spent their days confiscating fireworks.

"They had so many calls at the 911 call center fire and police dispatchers were answering 911 calls it was just a lot of calls for fireworks incidents, grass fires," says Capt. Jennifer Norton, Yakima Fire Department.

Firefighters say the number of fires has decreased since Yakima banned fireworks about 10 years ago. But people don't always follow the law which is why a crew of firefighters drove around specifically looking for fires.