13 fires part of week’s emergency calls

It was a brisk week at Valley Fire between May 1 and Monday.

“It looks like everything kind of jumped up a little bit,” said department spokesman Bill Clifford.

There were 202 emergency calls to the department, with 13 reported as structure fires.

A fire on May 1 destroyed a house at 10510 E. Dean Ave. No one was injured, but firefighters said they consider the home a total loss.

The same day, crews rescued an injured worker from the roof of a house on Dishman-Mica Road. They then put out a small fire in a travel trailer on East Fifth Avenue and treated a man who was hospitalized after a struggle with police who used a Taser on him.

Other reports turned up four illegal fires, including at least one at a construction site.

“Burning construction debris is illegal,” Clifford said, and the department can ticket violators.

There was also one vehicle fire during the week, and on Saturday somebody lit a portable toilet on fire at 17409 E. Sprague Ave., he said.

Of 12 fire alarms, one turned out to be serious. On May 3, someone heard an alarm at an unoccupied house at the 2800 block of South Blake Road where firefighters later found food smoking on two burners on the stove, Clifford said.

There were eight vehicle accidents resulting in five trips to the hospital.

Firefighters handled two hazardous materials calls, four service calls and 156 emergency medical calls during the week, he said.