More Fireworks-Sparked Blazes Frustrate Firefighters

DENVER (CBS4) - Though the 4th of July holiday has ended, the fire danger still abounds in the form of illegal fireworks.

Many fire departments responded to calls Tuesday of fires that proved to be started by fireworks.

"We were busy with calls all weekend long but last night is when we started having fires. After the main fireworks shows had ended we actually got a report of a house on fire," said Eric Hurst of South Metro Fire and Rescue.

That fire fortunately only burned a bush. "It was a really close call."

At 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, a fire was started in a Lone Tree park. A fire station was nearby and responded promptly, but firefighters found bottle rockets in the grass.

"So we found a bunch of these strewn about in the burned area, and we're really close to some houses which is even more concerning for us," said Hurst.

"Hopefully this is the last call we're going to respond to with fireworks causing fires but we know there's still a lot of fireworks out there and if it's anything like today we saw some illegal ones which caused this fire, Hurst said.

The worst damage by illegal fireworks happened in Aurora, where two homes were partially destroyed. Arson investigators are looking into the case, and charges are possible.