No holiday for police

The Fourth of July might be a national holiday and a day for beach parties, fireworks shows and barbecues, but it’s no picnic for Laguna Beach’s public safety services.

Independence Day is the busiest day of the year in Laguna Beach, with all police officers on duty.

On Wednesday, even Police Chief Mike Sellers was walking a beat and answering calls, Sgt. Jason Kravetz said.

Marine Safety staff worked overtime from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. Marine Safety Chief Mark Klosterman estimated about 60,000 people came to the beach. That breaks down to each Marine Safety staff member being responsible for about 830 beach-goers.

Needless to say, the beaches were crowded.

“There was no sand left,” Klosterman said. “You could walk from towel to towel, umbrella to umbrella.”

For the people charged with keeping Laguna’s beaches safe, the warm weather, the holiday and the yellow-flagged surf and tide conditions were combustible.

Riptide rescues

One of Marine Safety’s biggest rescues actually came Tuesday. Marine Safety Chief Mark Klosterman said 22 people were caught in a rip current near Treasure Island Beach all at once.

Two lifeguards and two supervisors were able to make all 22 rescues. Klosterman said 18-year lifeguard veteran Josh Bynum described the experience as the most intense situation of his career.

That was a warmup to Wednesday’s crowds.

The crew of 72 lifeguards made 358 critical rescues, pulled 192 people out of rip currents, helped 163 people caught in the three to five foot surf, and made more than 7,000 preventive contacts throughout July 4.

Beach party broken up

On July 4, police officers broke up a huge beach party in South Laguna with some 250 revelers, and confiscated a large quantity of alcohol and fireworks, Kravetz said.

Police were called to Tutuava Beach, an isolated cove, about 4 p.m. to break up an alleged fistfight among five men. When police arrived, they discovered a crowd of people, mostly in their 20s, drinking and setting off fireworks.

“They were shooting large fireworks off in each other’s faces,” Kravetz said.

One Laguna Beach man was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication and taken to the city jail to sober up, Kravetz said. He was then released.

No other arrests, and no injuries, were reported.

INJURIES REPORTED

Beachgoers sustained broken legs, arms and noses as well as spinal cord injuries despite the lifeguard warnings. Klosterman said preventive contacts are one of the most important duties the lifeguards have because it educates people on how to behave before they get hurt.

“If [lifeguards] just waited for people to do what they were going to do, there would be a lot of problems,” Klosterman said.

He said some of the danger comes from the large number of beach-goers who have no ocean swimming experience.

Many people come to Laguna’s beaches and want to swim in the ocean believing it’s no different than swimming in a pool, but Klosterman said tide and surf conditions are dangerous and surprise many inexperienced ocean swimmers with how risky it is.

“They need to realize that they’re in an open dangerous environment,” Klosterman said.