Weekend fireworks lead to injury, multiple fires

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 7, 2026

A man severely injured his hand, the remnants of a relocated historic building burned, a fire started in a sailboat on a trailer and at least five vegetation fires occurred on Whidbey over the Fourth of July weekend.

Fireworks caused or are suspected to have caused most of the incidents, according to fire chiefs on the island.

A “short-fused mortar” left a 26-year-old resident’s hand “completely mangled” after discharging his own fireworks near the Fourth of July carnival in Windjammer Park, Oak Harbor Fire Department Chief Travis Anderson said. The incident occurred around 10:39 p.m. on Independence Day in the 2000 block of Beeksma Drive.

Kevin Barton, deputy chief of the Oak Harbor Police Department, noted that the man’s hand bled “profusely,” necessitating treatment on-scene before the man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center.

Officials had no update Monday on the man’s condition, though Anderson said he believed the man had undergone surgery.

The Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce put on a fireworks show at the park around 10 p.m. that night. Barton explained that individuals are not permitted to light their own fireworks near the carnival, but he added that the police department is not pursuing charges.

Fires kept departments on the island fairly busy.

Perhaps the most destructive of them occurred near the intersection of Northeast Front Street and Northeast Center Street in Coupeville. Firefighters responding to a smoke investigation about 6 a.m. Sunday found the remnants of a relocated historic building burning near Northeast Front Street and Northeast Center Street in Coupeville.

The building, known as the Zylstra Law Office, was relocated to 304 Northeast Fifth Street, Community Planning Director Josh Pitts explained. It was constructed in 1904. Little remained of the building after its relocation besides a wooden foundation, Helm said.

Remnants of fireworks were found on the street nearby, the chief said, but the exact cause of the fire is unknown. Conducting an investigation is a challenge because of the scene’s location on the side of a bluff overlooking Penn Cove. The fire destroyed the only stairs accessing the building’s remnants.

That investigation is not necessarily an urgent issue, however. Helm said the department’s investigator was off-duty that day and would have had their hands full otherwise.

“There’s not a whole lot of value for us to go down to put our investigators at risk right now,” Helm said.

A 30-foot sailboat on a trailer caught fire early Sunday morning while parked in a yard on Libbey Road.

Neighbors heard “small explosions” around that time, then observed and reported the fire, Deputy Chief Ray Merrill of North Whidbey Fire and Rescue said. It took nearly 30 minutes to extinguish the fire because of the volume of items inside.

Merrill noted that the sailboat had been parked there for “quite a few years.”

Firefighters also responded to several brush and vegetation fires across the island, mostly on July 5.

“A lot of the calls came in Sunday morning as people woke up and found fires that had been smoldering overnight,” South Whidbey Fire/EMS Chief Nick Walsh said.

Bystanders told firefighters from Walsh’s department that fireworks caused a fire which occurred the evening of the Fourth of July in Langley. It started in some grass and traveled up a hill towards residences but was partially extinguished by the time help arrived.

A campfire is believed to have caused a fire around 6 a.m. on July 5 near Sunlight Beach Road in Clinton. It grew to an area of about 15 feet long and 15 feet wide, according to Walsh. Residents helped extinguish the fire with a garden hose.

Two fires occurred Sunday morning in Greenbank.

Neither fire turned out to be significant, Helm said. One started on Smugglers Cove Road and is believed to be firework-related. A verbal dispute took place at the scene before units arrived, although what spurred the argument is unknown.

Late last month, a residential fire and explosion on Smugglers Cove Road involving approximately 700 pounds of fireworks injured three firefighters.

North Whidbey Fire and Rescue responded to one last fire before the weekend’s end.

Nearby resident Kaiden Graham saw a “big plume of smoke” rise into the air above Oak Harbor Christian Reformed Church Sunday evening, when fireworks kindled a fire just outside the church’s parking lot.

A group of teenagers accidentally started the fire while playing with fireworks, Merrill said. No injuries occurred, but wind and dry grass meant the fire moved quickly; it grew to an area approximately 60 feet long and 30 feet wide before firefighters extinguished it.

Fireworks are not permitted in unincorporated Island County on July 5, but the teenagers will not be held responsible for the fire, according to Merrill.

“I’ve got to give credit to those kids,” he said. “They didn’t run off — they stayed. They called 911, they stayed and gave me their statements, they told me what happened. They were upfront, they were very honest about it.”