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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us July 5, 2005 Throngs celebrate Fourth in city Holiday weekend lacks rowdiness level that had marred earlier years By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings An estimated 20,000 people line the parade route as the beginning of Ashland’s Fourth of July parade reaches downtown Monday morning. Fred Stockwell | For the Tidings A day later, car tires crunch over spent fireworks casings that litter neighborhood streets and parking lots. The seven members of the pyrotechnics team that orchestrated the public fireworks display return to the softball fields on Iowa Street to finish cleaning up the remains of the 230 shells they launched into the sky on the Fourth of July. The wind has dissipated the stench of sulfur that hung in the air until the early morning hours, but the smell of recently charred brush lingers where a small grass fire burned on Clay Street early Monday night. Just an officer and a sergeant are on duty at the Ashland Police Department in the morning because the majority of the staff worked a long day and night confiscating illegal fireworks, arresting people on outstanding warrants and dealing with intoxicated folks who got out of control. But altogether, holiday was relatively calm. Paul Boruck, lead pyro for Ashland’s fireworks , works at the controls during setup for the nighttime display. Jennifer Squires | Ashland Daily Tidings “Mostly it was just illegal fireworks calls. I think we made some warrant arrests,” APD Sgt. Kirk Cromwell said this morning. “It seems the Medford fireworks show has taken a lot of the people from out of town who we used to have problems with.” There were no major injuries, accidents or fires and, by the time last call was sounded in bars around town at 2 a.m., the streets were quiet and dark. “It was better than average,” said Ashland fire prevention officer Margueritte Hickman. “We didn’t have as many incidents as years past.” Officers responded with two Ashland firefighters to the grass fire on Clay Street and Takelma Way just after 9 p.m. The blaze, started by fireworks, burned a 20-by-20-foot area of dry brush and nipped at a tree branch. A house less than 200 feet away was considered threatened when the fire started, but the flames never came near the building and firefighters only took a few minutes to control the blaze. “It was burning pretty good at first, then it calmed down,” AFR Cpt. Dave Hanstein said. The Clay Street fire was the first of about 10 small fires Ashland firefighters responded to, according to Hickman. The firework-caused blazes included several grass fires and one inside a garbage can. None were serious. Breaking the law APD officers confiscated prohibited fireworks from at least four people on Monday; Ashland firefighters claimed illegal fireworks from a handful of others during the day. “Basically what our approach was we were looking for situations that posed an imminent danger,” Hickman said. “There were certainly a lot more out there.” Technicians prepare for fireworks spectacular Illegal fireworks — those that fire more than 12 inches in the air or move more than 12 feet side-to-side — rocketed up from the sidewalk and the center turn lane of Ashland Street in front of Great America Pizza Co. as soon as the sun went down. The colors cracked above the power lines and crowds inside the fenced-off beer garden cheered as sparks cascaded down on passing cars. Across the street in Southern Oregon University parking lots, legal fireworks twizzled colors a few feet from the ground. Three blocks up the street at the infamous Bridge Street block party, residents and revelers looking for excitement meandered between houses and street fireworks displays. “We’re gong to blow something up,” one man said to his friends standing on a front lawn. “We’re going to blow up this bottle.” As people lit off their personal pyrotechnics, they shared lighters, warnings to “watch out for the power lines” and the occasional “this is illegal” recognition. Just before the street went dark for the night, a brown-haired young girl in a lavender tank top and ruffled, denim skirt danced in the street with a sparkler. With an inch left to burn, she threw the sparkler down on the street to fizzle out with the remnants of the night’s celebration. Minutes later, APD officers would cite two men for having illegal fireworks on the street and the presence of four police cruisers along the three-block stretch would quiet the parties and snuff out the fireworks. “According to Sgt. Smith, it was a very quiet evening,” Cromwell said. Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or [email protected]. 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