OGDEN — Residents across the Wasatch Front, including Ogden and the rest of Weber County, seemed to abide by calls from leaders to forego using fireworks this Fourth of July.

Air pollution levels in Weber, Salt Lake and Utah counties were way down on Independence Day, last Sunday, compared to the levels registered in prior years. Likewise, the number of fires reported in Ogden between last Friday and Monday dipped dramatically compared to last year. A Weber County animal-control official, meantime, supplied figures indicating dogs experienced less trauma from the bangs and pops of fireworks.

Calls from Gov. Spencer Cox and others to scale back fireworks use to guard against the possibility of a fire given the ongoing drought figure in the declines, officials suspect. Leaders in Ogden, Washington Terrace and North Ogden implemented bans or partial bans on fireworks use, also factoring in the trend here.

“The community did a fantastic job in abiding by the ban and the rules,” said Mike Slater, spokesman for the Ogden Fire Department. There were just two reports of fires caused by fireworks between last Friday and Sunday, both of them extinguished before firefighters arrived on the scene. In previous years, he said, the department has averaged 20 such calls per day on and around Independence Day.

Similarly, data from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality, shows that the skies were much cleaner. Levels of PM 2.5 — particulate matter like car exhaust and smoke from fireworks and wildfires that measures 2.5 microns or less in width — didn’t completely go away. But levels “were certainly less than what we’ve seen in a typical year,” said Bryce Bird, director of the Division of Air Quality.

In fact, the 24-hour average PM 2.5 level in Weber County air for Sunday, July 4, was 11.4 micrograms per cubic meter. That’s down from the five-year average between 2016 and 2020 of 42.5 micrograms per cubic meter, according to Division of Air Quality data. The average level on Sunday for Utah County was 12.2 micrograms per cubic meter, down from the five-year average of 29.84 micrograms, while the number on Independence Day in Salt Lake County was 10.1 micgrograms, down from 33.78 micrograms.

The average in Davis County for Sunday was 16.2 micrograms, up slightly from the 15.98-microgram average for the 2016-2020 period.

Calls and mandates to scale back fireworks use “did make a difference,” Bird said. “Anything to reduce exposure to pollution helps.”

Ogden Fire Department brush trucks plied the city’s streets over the weekend to offer a visual reminder to the public about the fireworks ban and to be at the ready if a fire were to ignite, Slater said. He offered thanks to the community for abiding, by and large, to the ban.

Capt. Brian Eynon of the Ogden Police Department said the weekend “was uneventful” with regard to fireworks issues. He said preliminary information shows that police issued at least three citations related to fireworks use, but that the data and reports from the weekend have yet to be fully processed.

Anecdotally, he said, “it seemed that activity was lower this year compared to last year.”

Amparo Gutierrez, a supervisor at the Weber County Animal Shelter, said there was a single stray dog her office had to help over the weekend compared to seven to 10 this same time last year. She attributed the reduction to the fireworks ban in Ogden and lowered overall use in Weber County.

Fireworks scare dogs, causing anxiety. “They will literally break down a door to get away from the thing that’s causing that,” she said, typically leading to an uptick in stray critters in the streets when July 4 rolls around.