BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — You’ve heard them, and possibly seen them as fireworks were going off all over town on July 4.
Fourth of July is the busiest night for firefighters as they battle fires started by illegal fireworks.
17 News’ Connor Dore went on a ride along with the Bakersfield Fire Department the night of July 4.
The ride started around 8 p.m., just as the sun set over Bakersfield. 17 News was joined by the public information officer for Bakersfield Fire, AJ Clark.
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The first call came in for a small vegetation fire very shortly after the drive started.
“We got a call for an outside fire over on Elm Street. We have our light engine responding. Because of the extra call volume tonight their taking care of the smaller incidents and keeping the engines available for the large incidents,” Clark said.
We followed the small engine, however, the quick response resulted in the fire being put out minutes after the beginning of the pursuit. After two more calls that were handled relatively quickly, fireworks were shooting off all over town.
The search began for illegal fireworks.
We made a stop in east Bakersfield where a family was shooting a roman candle. Clark issued them a citation.
“There’s a report of a large grass fire and then they’re responding, an engine reported that there was another fire also,” Clark said.
We headed to a big fire in the Hillcrest area, it amassed to 20 acres when we arrived. The bumpy dirt roads held the fire engines on Highway 178, while water tenders and patrols sprayed the fire. We headed up a hill where we saw all the illegal fireworks from a better view.
Bakersfield Fire received 236 calls July 4, 67 of those were for fires. Four houses caught fire and one commercial building caught fire.
BFD issued 106 illegal firework citations. In total, BFD reports $1 million dollars in damages.
Kern County Fire also saw a larger number of incidents.
357 emergency incidents were dispatched, a 45% increase since 2025 and firefighters responded to 203 fires, a 44% increase from last year.
Dispatch handled over 1,300,911 calls and the illegal fireworks reporter online received 3,500 reports.
There were also fires caught on camera on Castro Lane, where a tree caught fire and threatened a home. Drone video captured a huge fire on Fairview Road and South Union Avenue in south Bakersfield.
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