Fort Worth’s July Fourth fireworks show canceled after grass fire at Panther Island

Fort Worth’s fireworks show was canceled after a grass fire started along the Trinity River on Monday night, according to reports from KDFW-TV (Channel 4), which was live-streaming the event.

The annual celebration at Panther Island Pavillion near downtown was expected to be the largest fireworks show in North Texas, the city said on its website.

The show ended a few minutes after starting and firefighters were seen putting out the fires as an announcer encouraged everyone to head home, the station reported.

The Fort Worth Fire Department said at 9:30 p.m. that it had responded to 68 calls on the July Fourth holiday. That’s 51 more calls than the entire day last year, the department said.

By 10:30 p.m., the department noted in a tweet that it responded to 77 additional calls in that hour, which did not include the Panther Island fire, where emergency crews were already on-site as it was a major event.

“It is very dry. It is breezy. It’s incredibly dangerous. One spark is all it takes,” the department tweeted.

The area has been in drought conditions. However, Fox 4 reported that organizers in Fort Worth had been watering the area around Panther Island for weeks to prevent dry patches.