If you thought the volume of fireworks in Bend was unusual Wednesday, you weren’t alone.

Local emergency responders reported a higher-than-usual number of calls this year, and a large share of them involved fireworks.

“It was not a normal weeknight, I can tell you that,” said Lt. Clint Burleigh, spokesman for Bend Police.

Bend Police logged 366 incidents, including 150 related to fireworks.

Burleigh said it’s not known how many fireworks calls were related to illegal activity. Aerial fireworks — which were widely visible across Bend on the holiday — are illegal in Oregon, but noisy novelties, like Piccolo Petes, are legal, as well as highly “annoying,” Burleigh said.

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office responded to 266 incidents from midnight to midnight Wednesday, including 26 fireworks-related calls.

Last year on the Fourth of July, the sheriff’s office responded to 225 calls, 27 of which were fireworks complaints.

Bend Fire Department responded to 62 calls. Of those, 14 were brush fires, three were structures on fire and one was a utility trailer on fire. One call was for stuck elevators, and a number of others involved fire alarms because of the power outages caused by the fire on Pilot Butte.

“We average 20 to 30 calls a day, so 62 is significantly higher,” Deputy Fire Marshal Cindy Kettering said.

Between 6 a.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday, Redmond Police logged 158 incidents. Fifty of those involved complaints of illegal fireworks. In one instance, fireworks caused a tree to burn at John Tuck Elementary School.

Prineville Police reported three complaints, including one involving a 20-year-old man cited for possessing alcohol about 10 p.m.

The U.S. Forest Service has so far this fire season received “twice” the number of calls it typically receives, according to spokeswoman Kassidy Kern.

Fireworks can have graver consequences outside of town, where there aren’t as many water sources, Kern said.

“From our perspective, if you’re on public lands, you’re basically standing in a fuel bed,” she said.

Small steps can help, Kern said, like ensuring that trailer chains are tied up and not dragging on the ground, creating sparks. Parking a car in tall, dry grass is a bad idea, as the heat from engines can ignite grass fires.

— Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com