KERN COUNTY, Calif., The Independence Day Holiday proved to be another busy holiday for the Kern County Fire Department. We offer a special thank-you to all KCFD members who worked tirelessly, whether it was at the dispatch center or out on the streets, to give their best on behalf of their community during the heightened emergency activity. In addition, thank-you to all in the community who followed the direction to report illegal fireworks online. 911 is for emergencies, not for reporting illegal fireworks. Listed below are significant Independence Day response/dispatch center statistics.
Total illegal fireworks reported via online “Illegal Fireworks Reporter”:
- 7/1/23 = 459
- 7/2/23 = 453
- 7/3/23 = 654
- 7/4/23 = 3.5K
- 6/1/23-Present = 5.9K
The Kern County Emergency Communications Center received 1,267 “911” calls on July 4th (an average day is approx. 350). The peak hour was 9 p.m. with 350 “911” calls (the average daily amount received in one hour).
At the peak, there were 49 active emergency incidents being managed simultaneously on July 4th. The total number of emergency incidents dispatched for the Kern County Fire Department were as follows:
- 7/1/23 = 237
- 7/2/23 = 245
- 7/3/23 = 222
- 7/4/23 = 396 (261 in 2022)
Between 12:01 a.m. July 4th and 3:00 a.m. July 5th the Kern County Fire Department was dispatched to 196 fires, including:
- 96 “Outside Fires” (53 in 2022)
- 15 “Structure Fires”
- 11 “Reinforced Structure Fires”
- 57 “Vegetation Fires” (8 in 2022)
This was a significant increase in the number of fires when compared to the same period of time in 2022. The successful response to the surge of emergency activity was a direct correlation to the Emergency Communications Center’s ability to dispatch resources in a timely manner and our firefighter’s coordinated and rapid response to extinguish fires before they could escalate into large complex fires.
