The Fresno Fire Department is increasing its staffing levels and putting extra safety measures in place for the 4th of July.
Typically, a total of 66 firefighters cover 23 stations. However, for the holiday an extra dozen will be working in an effort to speed up response times.
“It's a very busy day. Our call volume goes way up,” said Koby Johns of the Fresno Fire Dept.
The emergency dispatch center will bring in a battalion chief for the day to supervise and prioritize calls for service.
“Because when you get multiple fires working it gets extremely chaotic very fast,” said Johns.
Off-road pickups with fire pumps have been positioned at certain stations across the city. Two of them each have brush trucks. Another two stations have a couple of patrol trucks. Three people are assigned to each one.
“That's going to give us some extra resources to respond to grass fires, rubbish fires and tree fires,” said Johns.
On a normal day, training exercises are scheduled, which pull engines and firefighters out of rotation. But training is cancelled for the fourth.
“Everybody is going to be in service in their district and ready to respond,” said Johns.
Sales of Safe and Sane fireworks are booming at many local stands.
“It's our favorite holiday of the year,” said Christina Simpson, a fireworks customer.
However, fireworks can get out of hand and contribute to a firefighter's workload. So Christina Simpson makes sure to act responsibly.
“There's adults supervising all the children and we're the ones with the big buckets of water with water hoses on the side and everything,” said Simpson.
You should avoid setting off illegal varieties which explode and shoot flames into the air.
“In a town like this it’s a really bad idea. As cool as it looks, it's not cool when someone's house burns down right,” said Johns.
Lighting off illegal fireworks is a costly move. If you get caught, it's a $1,000 fine.