(Seguin) — Now if emergency personnel in Guadalupe County weren’t busy planning for Hurricane Beryl, then they were kept busy putting out fires. Patrick Pinder, the Guadalupe County emergency management coordinator and fire marshal, says fire crews were kept busy throughout last week’s extra long Fourth of July weekend. He not only provides this recap as information but also as a reminder for playing it safe year round.
That’s because he says much of the overtime put in was due to fireworks.
“The firework season in general was just busy really on the 4th of July but with the fireworks season — fireworks going on sale, earlier in the week, prior to the 4th, we really didn’t see a whole lot of folks at the fireworks stand purchasing fireworks. On July 3rd, we began to see an increase in sales at the fireworks stands when inspectors were out there and then on the 4th, right around dark is when we started seeing an increase in fireworks calls. The fireworks calls vary from grass fires to fireworks nuisance calls. We had about 15 to 20 calls within about a five hour span and most of those were fireworks related,” said Pinder.
Pinder says of those fire calls, one involved a structure.
“We even had a report of a structure fire that may have been caused by a firework. That fire is still under investigation but we did have a structure fire called in around the I think it was the 400 block of Leisure Village. They have an outside shed that caught on fire. The residents were inside and had no idea that the shed was on fire. There were fireworks going off in the area. So, it can’t be eliminated but we are still looking into some other causes into that fire,” said Pinder.
Pinder says a lot resources were also put into action following reports of grass fires across the county.
“We had several grass fires. A lot of resources in the county, a lot of fire departments were all over. We had a fire in the Marion area on Pioneer Road which caused a couple of round bales to catch on fire so that was one of our larger fires — a grass fire that spread to some round bales — I think probably about five hours just trying to extinguish the round bales,” said Pinder.
With plenty of summer still left, Pinder warns about being safe when popping those leftover fireworks. In fact, he says people should play it safe everyday of the year.
“We want people to be careful when they are using fireworks. Fireworks in Guadalupe County are not illegal. You can purchase the fireworks at the fireworks stand during the season and then you are allowed to pop them throughout the year and that’s one of the issues that we see going into the summer season and more the dry conditions. People are going to have events and parties and they are going to use the fireworks that they purchased on the 4th and we just want people to be aware of those dry conditions and be sure to watch those winds. Have a water source. Make sure you are not popping it near any kind of agriculture or vegetation because that’s the last thing you want to do is to have the fire marshal’s office come out and charge anybody with any kind of fireworks arson case. Just make sure you are doing it safely,” said Pinder.
Burning down property, however, is not the only fear for emergency officials. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that in 2022, there were 11 deaths and more than 10,000 injuries due to fireworks.