Fireworks sparked a 5-acre blaze that destroyed three outbuildings in Lake Point on the Fourth of July, according to the North Tooele Fire District.
The fire started when a juvenile set off fireworks in a field off of North Sage Lane around 4 p.m. after their parents told them not to set them off, according to NTFD public information officer Ryan Willden. The fire spread through the field and burned two sheds and a barn, and threatened several homes, before fire crews were able to extinguish it.
Since the fireworks were set off in an area under fire restrictions from the state Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, the juvenile is facing a Class B misdemeanor, according to Willden. Fireworks, tracer ammunition and other potential fire-starting activities are banned by the restrictions.
Willden said it took eight brush trucks, three engines, a helicopter and more than 30 firefighters to battle the afternoon blaze. The scene was not cleared until around 9 p.m. as fire crews searched for hotspots and the possibility of the fire reigniting.
NTFD, Grantsville City Fire Department, federal Bureau of Land Management, and state Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands were involved in battling the blaze, with assistance from Tooele County Sheriff’s Office and Utah Highway Patrol.
The Lake Point fire was the most prominent on Tuesday but there were a number of smaller blazes around the county. A trailer caught on fire on Pioneer Avenue in Tooele City just after midnight on the holiday, according to Tooele City Fire Chief Bucky Whitehouse.
Whitehouse said spent fireworks were placed in a metal container inside the trailer but were not properly extinguished. A breeze caused the fireworks to reignite, sparking the blaze in the trailer, he said.
There were five fireworks-related fires in Tooele City on the holiday, down from 13 a year ago. But Whitehouse said the fire department is responding to an average of three firework-related calls per day since July 1. That includes two plastic garbage cans that caught fire after fireworks were improperly disposed of in them.
Whitehouse said the best way to dispose of fireworks is to place them in a metal or nonflammable container with water to ensure they are fully extinguished and to place them in a garbage can away from homes or dry grass.
There also was a fire Wednesday night near the intersection of state Route 112 and Sheep Lane, which was also caused by fireworks, and burned about a half-acre, Whitehouse said.
A number of other, smaller fireworks calls were reported over the holiday, including a cigarette that burned a few acres near the intersection of Durfee and Worthington, as well as an electrical fire near an irrigation water pump off of the Old Lincoln Highway, according to Grantsville City Fire Chief Casey Phillips.