By Dennis Box
The Courier-Herald
Independence Day brought out the hamburgers and hot days during the day and the fireworks at night.
The evening was lighted with showers of colors and lights in all directions around Bonney Lake and the Pierce County area. In past years problems with fires and injuries during the holiday have kept area firefighters running.
This year was no different, but East Pierce Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief John McDonald said there were fewer calls than expected, mainly because of brief showers earlier in the day.
According to the department there were 22 medical and fire calls in Bonney Lake and the surrounding unincorporated Pierce County area, including eight fires and three automobile accidents.
One of the first fire calls came at 1 a.m. July 4 on 191st Avenue East. A pool house at a construction site caught fire and five fire engines responded. Damage was estimated at $10,000.
A juvenile playing with fireworks started a brush fire at about 3 p.m. in the greenbelt between Rhododendron Park and Mountain View Middle School. The boy told firefighters the wind blew his fireworks into the grass. When he saw the flames, he went to a nearby house and called 9-1-1. The boy stayed at the site and directed the firefighters to the fire. The fire did not threaten houses or the schools and the crew contained the blaze.
At 10 p.m. East Pierce crews extinguished a fire at the Bonney Lake High School baseball field. McDonald said the cause was probably fireworks.
Another crew put out a dumpster fire next to the Sylvan Learning Center in the Safeway shopping center.
At midnight, firefighters responded to a house fire in the 20300 block of 69th Street East. A bottle rocket landed near the garage igniting the siding causing about $3,000 in damage.
At about the same time another East Pierce crew put out a grass fire along the road on Church Lake Drive East.
Along with numerous fires, East Pierce crews also responded to a series of emergency calls on Independence Day.
€ During a four-hour stretch in the afternoon July 4 there were three automobile accidents. In the first accident a person was taken to area hospital following a T-bone accident on 214th Avenue East and Sumner-Buckley Highway. The second was a three-car accident on state Route 410 East near Lumberman's resulting in minor injuries. The third accident was a single-car, rollover accident on Sumner-Tapps Highway. The passenger was transported to an area hospital. None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.
€ Later that afternoon, emergency crews treated a suspect who had been pursued by a police dog after fleeing his vehicle at the 1500 block of Forest Canyon Road East. The suspect was treated for multiple dog bites and transported to Tacoma General Hospital.
€ East Pierce units joined crews from Carbonado, Central Pierce, Puyallup and the Pierce County Sheriff's department at 8 p.m. in a call for a swift water rescue at the Carbon River reserve. According to McDonald, a family had been hiking in the Mount Rainier National Park when they attempted to cross the river at the Ipsut Creek campground. The husband helped his family across, but became trapped on a rock in the middle of the river. Emergency crews were able to rescue the man. He was treated for hypothermia at the scene.
Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@courierherald.com.
