“There were only about 20 water rescues, all surf or rip-related, and only some minor calls for medical aid,” said Josh Bynum, marine safety officer.
There were no calls for advanced life support and only a couple of calls for basic life support, which is unusually low for a traditionally busy weekend, Bynum said.
“It was one of the slowest Fourth of Julys, in terms of medical aid, that I have been a part of,” he said.
Low surf activity during the weekend also was a huge factor in the decrease in the amount of rescues that were made this year, Diederich said.
“On Monday, when surf activity increased, there were seven times more rescues made than on the Fourth of July,” Diederich said. “We have been more busy in the past couple of days than the entire Fourth of July weekend.”
And although there were seven reports of missing children between ages 3 and 8 on Independence Day, all were found safe by the end of the day.
The Laguna Beach Marine Safety Department geared up for the weekend by having 62 lifeguards on duty from 6 p.m. to midnight, compared with the 54 who are usually on duty during a normal day. They made 4,522 “prevention contacts” to the public to explain how to stay safe and avoid hazardous situations during the weekend.
Lifeguards made 5,820 public contacts and 900 enforcement actions — which is down from last year’s Fourth of July, in which only 1,759 enforcement actions were made.
“Enforcement actions are made, for example, if we see people bringing portable grills to the beach. Those are not allowed,” said Diederich.
He also said that 700 of the enforcement actions were marine ecology contacts — such as responding to people trying to take home specimens from tide pools.
There were also no fires reported and no injuries due to sparks from firecrackers, according to Bynum. In terms of rescues and medical aid, the night went very smoothly, he said.
“It was pretty uneventful. It was pretty slow by normal standards.”
