Pittsburgh police respond to multiple fireworks incidents on Fourth of July
Jul. 5—Pittsburgh Police with the city's Fireworks Task Force spent a good bit of time in the Hazelwood area on the Fourth of July, where they responded to 32 fireworks complaint calls and issued multiple warnings.
Overall, the task force responded to 158 complaints overnight, with some resulting in minor fires but no injuries.
Among the calls investigated:
—A fire on a basketball court at Lewis Parklet in Hazelwood at a party with more than 200 people in attendance. Police said the park was littered with fireworks tubes, boxes and garbage.
—A vehicle fire in Zone 4 sparked by fireworks embers landing on the car. Neighbors extinguished the fire.
—A trash-can fire sparked by still-smoldering fireworks on Mount Pleasant Road in Northview Heights.
—A box beside a house which caught fire after a sparkler was tossed into it, on Hazeldale Street in Carrick. Police from Zone 3 were able to extinguish the fire before it spread to the home.
—A dumpster fire on Bracey Drive in East Hills, sparked by several boxes of still-smoldering fireworks that were thrown away before being fully extinguished. Crews from Engine 16 in Wilkinsburg put out the fire.
The task force responded to 88 incidents on Saturday, and began nightly enforcement efforts on June 22, in the run-up to the holiday. Fireworks are not permitted for use in any city park, ball field, or any city-owned property. The task force can issue warnings, but subsequent calls to the same address may result in $100 citations and confiscation of the fireworks.
The incident numbers are down from last year. During 2020 Fourth of July celebrations, investigators from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the Bureau of Fire answered 131 fireworks complaints on July 4 and then were forced to triage another 125 calls that came in shortly after midnight the morning of July 5.
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .
