Families across the Quad Cities area are gearing up for 4th of July and the light and sound show that goes with it. But are people leaving it to the pros like experts stress over and over? Area police and fire departments traditionally respond to hundreds of fireworks related calls each year. This time, there's an extra concern with the hot, dry conditions.
It happens every year around America's birthday. Davenport police get flooded with fireworks calls. "We get inundated with a lot of calls, we get anywhere from 200 to 300 during the fourth of July festivities," said Major Don Schaeffer.
Corporal Jed Hythecker was focusing on just that Monday. For four days, during peak fireworks times, the Davenport police department has several extra officers on each shift handling only fireworks incidents. "That's all they do and it keeps the beat car free to respond to people's needs," added Major Schaeffer.
Officers responded to 20 complaints on Sunday and expect the number to grow the next couple of days. Their goal is to remind people that explosive type fireworks in Iowa is illegal, ticket those in violation, but most importantly try to prevent accidents, whether injuries or damages to property.
Damages are a bigger concern this year than normal because of the extremely dry conditions. "We try to get any idea if there's somebody in danger or the size of fireworks and prioritize those," said Major Schaeffer.
Area departments say so far calls have been minor incidents or complaints, but they remind 4th of July celebrators that it takes less than a second before some real damage can be done. "I hope that's a message for the people. We gear towards it, we know it's going to occur. We would like to not have it whatsoever but if it's going to occur they got to really think safety."
