Fourth of July festivities and fireworks kept city of Ocean Shores Police, Fire Department staff and Public Works crews busy working overtime to keep the beaches safe and clean.

A total of 15.5 tons of trash was hauled away from the city’s beaches on July 5.

All told, the Ocean Shores Fire Department had well over two dozen public safety professionals and volunteers on hand for the two peak days of legal fireworks use last week.

The emphasis on “prevention, presence and education,” combined with a mid-week holiday and cooler weather produced favorable results.

Lt. Corey Kuhl, the department’s public information officer, said there were 19 aid calls and six fire-related calls over the two days, “not much more than average.”

The only major incident occurred around 3:50 Thursday morning, when the Ocean Shores Police reported that a large pile of trash bags at the Chance a La Mer approach was burning. Despite fireworks exploding from the pile, firefighters were able to keep the blaze out of the adjacent dunes.

From 4 p.m. to well past midnight both days, OSFD had as many as four vehicles actively patrolling the beach, plus three stationed at beach approaches. With the emphasis on keeping campfires and fireworks at least 100 feet away from the dunes, the OSFD beach rigs carried 100-foot measuring ropes and shovels, which personnel used throughout both days to relocate small and medium sized fires. A few that were too close and too big to move were extinguished.

Ocean Shores Fire Chief David Bathke commended the assistance of volunteers from the local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), who helped police and fire with traffic management and were among many volunteers who handed out more than 3,000 trash bags at beach approaches.

Bathke remarked, “I can’t say enough about our crews that were on the ground out there.”