4th of July recap of fires in the Tri-Cities area

TRI-CITIES, Wash. --- Fire agencies from all across the Tri-Cities are just now catching up on sleep, after multiple fires during the last 24 hours.

Firefighters now say they are extremely worried about this coming weekend's heatwave.

There were many house fires and vegetation blazes. According to both the Kennewick and Benton County fire departments, this year the amount of calls for help were about average.

"We don't have the total numbers so we are still working through that data, some of the calls were mutual aid, helping other partners so we are still trying to get the final numbers," said Michael Heffner with the Kennewick Fire Department.

Firefighters said light wind and other factors contributed to things not getting totally out of hand.

"The three things we look for, temperatures for sure when it dries up fuels when it's hot out, humidity is also a concern, so if humidity is real low we worry about fire danger and we worry about wind," Heffner said.

This was only the second year where fireworks were legal in the city of Kennewick, so the department had extra staff on duty and used specialized vehicles like their off-road units, for precautionary patrols.

As our heatwave comes this weekend, firefighters will have extra patrols, just in case. Officials said it's a good time to check on the elderly, stay hydrated and call 9-1-1 if you see anything.

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