Fireworks blamed for fires at Utah apartment complex, homes

Utah authorities say July Fourth fireworks in Salt Lake City suburbs sparked separate fires that burned part of two homes and an apartment complex, leaving three people injured and about 100 people without a place to stay.

Unified Fire Battalion Chief Steve Prokopis says fireworks sparked a blaze on the second story of an apartment building in Midvale early Wednesday and spread to other floors.

Prokopis says two men escaped the fire by jumping from a third-floor window. They received minor injuries, as did a man on the ground who tried to catch them.

Unified Fire says fireworks that ignited grass in Cottonwood Heights burned the sides of two nearby houses.

Fire officials say fireworks also sparked small fires in Salt Lake City’s Sugar House Park and in Tooele, Davis and Utah Counties.