KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Crews responded to several firework-related incidents in the Lonsdale neighborhood of Knoxville Thursday night, over the Fourth of July holiday.
Five teens were taken to the hospital with third-degree burns. The teens were shooting fireworks out of a car when it caught fire and continued to burn, according to an incident report from the Knoxville Police Department.
The teens told police someone had shot fireworks into their car, which caused the fire. However, the report said witnesses quickly disputed them.
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People need to be careful with fireworks, especially when it's hot and dry, said Mark Wilbanks, the Knoxville Fire Department Communications Officer.
“Not only can people get hurt with fireworks, they can cause fires," Wilbanks said. "They can set other people's homes on fire, they can set their own home on fire. It's just a very dangerous situation all around."
Officers also responded to a house fire on Ohio Avenue Thursday night, just minutes away from where the teens' car caught fire, Wilbanks said. While officers were responding to that fire, a firework was shot into the cab of a fire truck, injuring an officer and damaging the truck, according to KFD.
"That firework exploded inside the truck. So the officer actually had some hearing issues," Wilbanks said.
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The Ohio Avenue house caught fire quickly due to a stray firework, Wilbanks also said.
"When they land in the grass or on someone’s roof that may have some trash in the gutter, they can start a fire very easily. All of that is very brittle and dry and burns very easily," he said.
Incidents like these aren't out of the ordinary, neighbors said. The Fourth of July is a stressful time, a person said. Multiple neighbors were lighting fireworks in a condensed area throughout the night, causing the house to shake.
It's common to find others' firework debris strewn across yards in the morning after Independence Day, another neighbor also said.
KFD is encouraging Knoxville residents to not continue to light fireworks throughout the rest of the weekend. It's too dangerous because of the weather conditions, Wilbanks said.
“We’re gonna have a hot and dry weekend, which means we’re going to have more problems through the weekend if people continue to shoot fireworks," he said. "We’re asking the public simply not to do that.”