NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — While fireworks were sanctioned for the city of Nashville's celebration, they are banned from personal use in Davidson County.
That doesn't mean people weren't using them.
Fireworks sparked more than a dozen emergency calls last night, including four house fires. Nashville Fire personnel responded to 15 fireworks-related calls.
"We had 15 calls for service that were directly related to fireworks. And what I mean by that is we had 14 calls related to fires that were started as a result of people using fireworks in Davidson County, and one call that was a medical call as a result of someone directly using fireworks," said Kendra Loney, NFD public information officer.
Nashville Fire Department broke down the calls.
"One building fire was a result of fireworks, we had four grass fires, three outside fires, two trash, and four residential house fires, and by that I mean people's homes were, started a fire as a result of fireworks being used. We had one minor had hand injuries from using a Roman candle," said Loney.
NFD says the calls just kept coming in and now the department wants to remind the public that fireworks are illegal in Davidson County and can be dangerous.
A home in Madison on Walton Lane was one of the calls.
The call came in described as a house fire with the possible cause being fireworks.
It's still under investigation.
This was just one of several calls coming into dispatch last night about fireworks causing homes to go up in flames.
"These are things that you hear about, and that you often are not impacted by until it happens to you. This has happened here in Davidson County. And so we wanted to make people aware of those numbers. Because until you hear those numbers, and this isn't a matter of 12 hours. This is from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.," Loney.
Despite the use of fireworks being illegal in Davidson County, this didn't stop many people last night and even days before the Fourth of July holiday from using them.
"We would recommend that you put water on the debris that is remaining to ensure that all of the things that are going on in that packaging that you can't see is flushed out, and that there's nothing remaining in that packaging that can still be burning or smoldering that could cause a fire to occur," Loney said. "Obviously we recommend that you just don't do it because it's prohibited altogether."
The fire department is expecting to get more calls later this week.
