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Heat wave no damper on Youngstown's July 4th show
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Downtown Youngstown was crowded with spectators watching Fourth of July fireworks Wednesday night.
By Ashley Luthern
aluthern@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Four-year-old Anisjia Minor looked to the sky to see bursts of red streak across the Wednesday night sky.
“I like the red fireworks,” she said, and added after a pause, “and the blue ones.”
Anisjia’s mother, Jhanique Anderson of Youngstown, stood watching the fireworks with her daughter, her cousin Sierra Anderson of Youngstown and 1-year-old nephew Taajier Jackson.
Jhanique Anderson said the fireworks were the conclusion of a day watching parades and enjoying a family cookout.
“We went to the Struthers parade and it was really nice. They gave us water, candy and flags,” she said.
“... And we always do the same thing each year and have a family cookout. That’s the most important thing: to be with our family.”
They and thousands of others gathered near the Covelli Centre and lined downtown streets to see the display, which ended just as thunderstorm warnings were issued for Trumbull and Mahoning counties. Trumbull County residents reported hail, blowing rains and downed trees.
Residents who stayed home because of the heat or storms still have another chance to see fireworks in the Mahoning Valley: The Jazz Ambassadors U.S. Army Field Band will perform at 8 tonight at the Maag Outdoor Arts Theater in Boardman Park, and fireworks will follow about 9:45.
Although Fourth of July temperatures peaked at about 95 degrees, the heat didn’t keep tens of thousands of people from attending parades and festivities in Austintown, Canfield, Struthers and Howland.
Firefighters in those areas said that they did not have any serious cases of heat exhaustion, nor did they have any reports of firework-related injuries.
Local police also said Independence Day was relatively quiet; however, Youngstown officers did confiscate five full cases of fireworks and 23 packages of miscellaneous fireworks suspected of being sold illegally at a South Side store.
Youngstown police received a complaint Tuesday that fireworks were being sold illegally at Lucky 7, 1396 E. Midlothian Blvd., and officers went to the store about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and found the fireworks in a back room with some packaging already open, according to reports.
The store owner, Steven G. Tsarnas, 45, told police that the fireworks were for personal use. Officers did not charge Tsarnas with a crime but told him to contact the city prosecutor’s office Thursday and took the fireworks, storing them in a Youngstown Fire Department building, records show.
Area fire officials had prepared for a rash of brush fires because of dry conditions, but the risk of fire might have been lowered with severe weather that hit the Mahoning Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, dumping more than inch of rain in some areas on Tuesday alone, according to the National Weather Service. Firefighters said Wednesday night that no reported fires were caused by fireworks.
A power outage in the Leavittsburg-Warren area Wednesday affected about 2,700 Ohio Edison customers but had nothing to do with earlier stormy weather or Wednesday’s heat, said Robin Patton, Ohio Edison spokeswoman.
“The cause was a squirrel getting caught in a transformer,” she said. The outage was reported about 1 p.m., and power was restored by 2:30 p.m., Patton added.