BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — City Arson Chief provides recap of July 4th fireworks enforcement
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
And every year, it is a topic that gets a lot of comments both for and against. It's illegal fireworks.
Joining us from Studio B is Battalion Chief Bryce Patterson. Thanks for coming in.
A very busy Friday for you.
Absolutely.
Is it ever not busy?
You know, uh, unfortunately, no. The 4th of July tends to be busy every year for us, and a lot of planning goes into that.
Several months before the 4th, we start our task force and enforcements.
You talk about being proactive when it comes to all of that, going out and finding the people who are selling the illegal fireworks. Once it gets to the night of the 4th, is it, it's just all reactive at that point.
You know, it is, um, the, the town kicks off when we have our, our dry season, our dry season, and, and it's hot, and, and those individuals are starting to light those fireworks, which creates some some grass fires and and brush fires that also extended to some uh residents and so yeah we we get going and and it doesn't stop usually till 1 or 2 in the morning afterwards.
I know it's been only a couple of days, but have you been able to identify any -- were there any house fires in the city limits as a result of those fireworks?
During that time, we had 4 building fires. One was an exterior shed that caught, but uh. Um, we did see that, um, 90% of those fires that occurred during that time were fireworks-related.
I mean, honestly, aside from the enforcement actions, I mean, at this point, is there anything else that you can identify that can be done?
Well, ultimately we're still following up on a lot of calls that exist from our tip line, uh, from our city app, and, uh, going out, you know, a lot of times people will come home afterwards and check their cameras and see what happened in their neighborhood or realize that there's some damage, uh, to their property, and they'll give us a call and so, uh, I would encourage those that.
That stuff at their house or they have some credible information from their neighbors that uh we're lighting illegal fireworks to to continue to uh uh add those to the tip line or fireworks at Bakersfield Fire.us and we're still following up and and going out and and uh if we have credible information we can still uh issue citations.
Is there anything, I mean, honestly, that, I mean, as far as this goes, it's year after year, the same message going out, uh, is, is there anything new or different, or is it just waiting for the moment when it finally starts to sink in?
Really, uh, just that moment when you start caring about your neighborhood and and start caring about your neighbor, uh, it's a selfish or selfish act to, uh, light illegal fireworks, you know, uh, there's issues with pets, there's issues with, you know, veterans.
Issues with uh people that have medical conditions that are affected by these fireworks, and so you know it would be nice if we had a time where people would start caring about their neighbor and stop doing these illegal fireworks.
Enforcing it, doing our best, uh, you know, putting a lot of resources towards, um, being proactive and removing those individuals that are selling fireworks but also just being aware of those, uh, social media posts and and snapping pictures and sending that stuff to us and and flagging those accounts and so that helps us with, uh, Facebook to uh go in and uh seek out for those individuals so it is a community uh uh problem and and comm.
You know, uh, collaboration is important to us, and still, uh, if you see something, say something, and, uh, be involved with, uh, helping us to find these individuals that are selling fireworks and igniting illegal fireworks.
You talked about that just a minute ago, following up, and this is not over since the 4th is over, but real quick, for people that may have forgotten, how can they reach out, and how can they report it?
So, there are multiple ways you can if you're in the city.
Bakersfield, you can uh go through our app and report it uh through the City of Bakersfield app. Uh, you could go through, uh, just sending an email, which is fireworks at Bakersfield Fire. It also just our tip line which is um, uh, you light it, uh, we write it, and if you just Google that and the Bakersfield Fire Department, uh, you'd be able to go through that tip line and, and make that, um, make that known to us.
All right, -- Bryce Patterson, thank you for coming in this morning. Appreciate it. -- Thanks and good luck. All right, thank you.
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