LAKE STEVENS — Snohomish County saw a calmer Fourth of July weekend than usual, but there still was plenty of mayhem, including dozens of injuries from fireworks.
The trouble started Friday night with a collision on Lake Stevens involving a motorized pontoon boat and an inflatable kayak.
The crash was reported just before 10 p.m. A Lake Stevens-area man, 59, was operating the kayak in the north cove area “without a lantern or navigation lights illuminated,” Police Chief Ralph Krusey said.
The pontoon, with six people on board, was illuminated and traveling no more than 5 mph. The kayak cut in front of the boat and the pontoon operator didn’t have time to stop, Krusey said. The kayak operator was thrown under the pontoon and hit the propeller. He suffered a broken arm. His passenger was unhurt.
The man has since been issued a citation, Krusey said.
As for fireworks, Providence Regional Medical Center Everett treated 17 people in recent days for injuries related to the devices, Dr. Ryan Keay said Tuesday. Most of those people didn’t require overnight care for their injuries, which included burns, cuts and eye problems. The majority of the patients were men from the Marysville and Tulalip areas.
Six patients were children or teens. Of those, three were bystanders and three were “either holding or leaning over fireworks at the time of injury,” Keay said.
Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington treated five people for fireworks-related injuries. Harborview Medical Center in Seattle saw 30 adults and children from throughout the region, most of whom had hand injuries, a spokeswoman said. Some of those Harborview patients arrived from incidents in Snohomish County. Hospital officials say they typically see fireworks injuries for about a week after the holiday.
Fireworks continued to sound in Marysville on Tuesday.
The holiday also is known for fires, and those happened, too.
Fireworks are believed to have caused a garage fire Saturday south of Everett that damaged three cars, said Leslie Hynes, a spokeswoman for Snohomish County Fire District 1.
In Monroe, a brush fire Monday night took off between two homes and was quickly extinguished. Fireworks were suspected, but no one fessed up. Crews in the Cathcart area also took a 16-year-old to the hospital Monday after he suffered a leg injury from a sparkler bomb, officials said.
Since firework sales started, the Marysville Fire District has seen at least four fireworks injuries, Fire Marshal Tom Maloney said. One person was hit in the abdomen with a mortar, and two others suffered facial burns, including a 14-year-old boy. There also was a roof fire and a shed fire in Marysville over the weekend.
Between Friday and Tuesday morning, Everett police had responded to nearly 300 fireworks complaints. That accounted for more than 10 percent of all holiday weekend police emergencies in the city, agency data show. The Everett Fire Department believe fireworks started at least three brush or tree fires Monday. Another brush fire and a house fire Monday remain under investigation, officials said.
The county’s 911 centers altogether received about 1,500 calls about fireworks, data show. That’s in addition to hundreds of calls made on the new non-emergency numbers.
“Thankfully, the call volume was not like what we saw in 2015,” said Terry Peterson, director of SNOCOM in south county. “Cooler, wetter weather patterns and the fact the holiday was on a weekday likely contributed to decreased call volumes.”
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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