Cosumnes Firefighters Kept Busy on 4th of July

Firefighters with the had a busy Fourth of July, and responded to 20 fires Wednesday, according to a press release.

Fifteen of those fires were between 9 p.m. and midnight, it said.

“This is what we fear on the 4th. Multiple fires at the same time have units responding from fire to fire and that makes it difficult to keep anyone available for the next emergency” the press release quoted Deputy Fire Chief John Michelini as saying.

Most of the fires were grass fires, but some were trash fires. The department also assisted the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District with an attic fire on Elnora Court, north of Elk Grove. That fire took 46 firefighters to contain and was started by illegal fireworks, Metro Fire officials said in a separate press release. Bottle rockets were found near the home, that department said.

Cosumnes Fire Chief Tracey Hansen said she was thankful there were no structure fires in the Elk Grove or Galt areas.

"It was a very busy night but thankfully most of the fires were fairly small in [size]," she said by phone.

Local fire officials did, however, issue "numerous" citations and seize "several pounds" of illegal fireworks, according to the press release.

"We were commenting that we've seen and heard more illegal [fireworks] than we had seen in previous years, just by anecdotal evidence," Hansen said.

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