July 05--Local firefighters responded to 57 grass and trash fires across Travis County during the Fourth of July holiday, officials said Friday.
That number is not out of the ordinary on a night when unsanctioned fireworks -- the likely cause of most of the fires -- light up the sky, said Thayer Smith, a battalion chief with the Austin Fire Department.
Of the fires, 30 were in Austin. Many of the calls to the Fire Department came between 10 p.m. and midnight, Smith said.
No injuries or structural damage were reported, he said.
Typically, it is illegal fireworks that set off a fire, rather than novelty items such as sparklers, Smith said.
The largest fire burned about an acre in a large field adjacent to the Sendero Hills neighborhood in East Austin near U.S. 183 and Loyola Lane. The cause of the fire is undetermined, Smith said.
Weather conditions, such as the lack of wind and trees that aren't yet parched, helped create a safer night, he said.
The number of calls to police about fireworks and the number of citations given out was not available Friday.
Long before nightfall, 50 people were displaced by an apartment fire in the 1000 block of Clayton Lane in East Austin that left 18 units damaged. The fire early Thursday morning, which officials said was caused by smoking materials, had an estimated damage of $350,000.
From 2009 to 2011, the average number of fires in Austin on the Fourth of July holiday was 25.
There were 56 fires in Austin in 2008, which spurred the Fire Fepartment to issue more public safety messages about the hazards of fireworks, Smith said.
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