Police find quiet Fourth around county
Lincoln County law-enforcement and emergency response agencies reported a fairly quiet Fourth of July weekend.
Plenty of people were pulled over by police, but no one in the entire county was arrested for drunk driving over the weekend, according to Capt. Roby Bowe of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
In fact, during the 48-hour period between 7 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Sunday, no arrests were made in southern Lincoln County at all, according to sheriff reports.
Other than common medical calls, Libby and Troy ambulances responded to only two incidents, both having to do with an overly intoxicated person, according to sheriff and Troy Police Department reports. There were only a few reports of fender-benders, none of which required an ambulance.
“It was a real good weekend,” Bowe said. “People were behaving themselves.”
Bowe said that the Fourth of July is not usually an exceptionally high-call weekend, though this year was quieter than he had expected. The sheriff’s office utilized extra patrols on U.S. Forest Service land and had extra DUI patrols.
“There were a lot of people at the lakes and campgrounds but everything was good and there were no problems,” Bowe said.
Temperatures reached 98 degrees on Saturday, which, combined with a lack of moisture and the use of fireworks, was expected to increase fire calls, according to Steve Lauer of the Libby Volunteer Fire Department.
“We don’t usually have a lot of trouble over the Fourth,” Lauer said. “Three to five (calls) would be a maximum number usually, but I thought we would have more this year due to the dry conditions.”
Fireworks caused at least three fires in the Libby area and no reported fires in the Troy area, according to reports. Two were small enough to be put out by homeowners, but one, which occurred at about 1 a.m. Sunday, required firefighters to work over an hour to put out.
“I thought we were rather fortunate,” Lauer said. “Obviously, the folks in the community were wise” in how they used fireworks.