Central Coast officers respond to illegal fireworks calls

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. (KION) Law enforcement and fire personnel across the Central Coast were on duty this holiday weekend monitoring the use of illegal fireworks.

The Salinas police department faced an increase in calls and a delayed response. This comes after a recent budget cut, limiting their resources. At one point last night during their busy holiday weekend, 20 calls mainly related to loud noise and fireworks were left pending for some time.

“All those calls for service are important to us," said Commander John Murray. "According to the threat to life, the seriousness in the community, higher priority calls we go to first.”

Some people described cities like Soledad as a war zone. Fireworks lit up the night sky throughout the central coast despite local ordinances in place to stop fire danger and injuries. Police were called out to at least two tragic injuries suspected to be caused by illegal fireworks.

“We had a 33-year-old man suffer a significant injury to his hand," said Commander John Murray. "Essentially, he lost his hand with what we believe were illegal fireworks, and also had a 15-year-old boy who also suffered very serious injuries to his hand losing a finger and some additional burns and some shrapnel wounds to his lower torso.”

In Hollister, the police department also received several calls. According to the police department, they had 15 extra personnel and four teams on duty including downtown patrol, traffic enforcement, DUI enforcement, and fireworks enforcement. The Hollister Police Department will also continue with enforcement and fines.

"It's not something that because the fourth is over we don't expect to get any more phone calls," said Hollister Police Commander Chris Wells. "It's something we're going to keep going throughout the year and continue to enforce throughout the year no matter when the fireworks are set off.”

The Watsonville Police Department also had their hands full responding to dozens of fireworks-related calls, 2 crashes, one caused by a DUI driver, and two DUI Arrests.

Local law enforcement will continue with enforcement and citations for the possession and use of illegal fireworks.