Merced firefighters, law enforcement report busy Fourth of July

The Merced Fire Department and Merced police stayed busy Saturday night, responding to several calls as residents celebrated the Fourth of July holiday.

Between 6 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday, police officers responded to 230 calls for service, according to the department’s Facebook page.

During the same hours the Merced City Fire Department responded to 46 fires, and six medical aide calls.

Earlier this month, Cal Fire reported that a statewide operation was conducted to help prevent illegal fireworks from entering the state.

The operation yielded 29 felonies, 165 misdemeanor citations, 25 infractions and the confiscation of over 48,440 pounds of illegal fireworks, according to a Cal Fire news release.

Still, there was no shortage of illegal fireworks throughout the Valley the night of July 4, as residents on social media reported many sightings of those items being used well into the night.

This year most of the public fireworks displays in Atwater and other Merced County cities were canceled, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

This story was originally published July 5, 2020 at 11:07 AM.