Firefighters have relatively quiet holiday

By Dave Toplikar

Saturday, July 5, 2008 | 7:17 a.m.

Las Vegas had a relatively mild Fourth of July holiday in terms of fireworks-spawned blazes, a city fire official said this morning.

"Compared to other years, it just wasn't really bad this year," said Timothy Szymanski, public information officer for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue.

Syzmanski said a number of the 25 building fires were the result of trees, brush or trash being on fire very close to the buildings. He said there were 28 building fires reported last year.

Szymanski said the biggest fireworks-related blaze was one that caused $25,000 damage to a home, but most of the fires were minor, he said.

However, dry windy conditions did lead to more vegetation fires this year, he said.

"We were a little bit more busy than last year. We had a little bit more tree fires and grass fires," he said. "Mostly what we had last night were palm tree fires caused by fireworks."

Most of the fire calls didn't start until after 8 p.m., he said.

For example, at 8:54 p.m., some pine needles on an the roof of a commercial business complex caught fire from fireworks, but there was no damage to the interior of the building, he said.

At 9:58 p.m. fireworks started the outside of the Veterans of Foreign Wars building at 1905 H St. on fire, causing $5,000 damage to a store room, mostly on the exterior, he said.

He noted that the "safe and sane" variety of fireworks were legal within the city from June 28 through July 4, but they are now illegal.