Emergency crews respond to several holiday incidents.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran July 8, 2007): A house fire caused by barbecue coals placed in a trash can happened at 2822 Elysium Drive in Eugene on Wednesday. An incorrect address was listed Friday on Page D1.

A fatal house fire caused by fireworks, another blaze that started from improperly discarded charcoal, and two river rescues at a newly fallen snag on the McKenzie River kept emergency crews busy on the Fourth of July.

Four-year-old Caleb Freeman died in a fire early Wednesday on Cloverleaf Loop in Springfield. He apparently ignited fireworks that were hidden in a closet.

The river incident did not turn tragic. All 10 of the boaters in the two groups that capsized on the snag Wednesday were wearing life jackets. They suffered only scrapes and bruises, Lane County sheriff's deputy Paul Vitus said.

"We were very happy to see that. It made everybody's day," Vitus said. The sheriff's water rescue team repeatedly has stressed the importance of wearing life jackets following a number of near tragedies in Lane County rivers so far this year involving intoxicated boaters and boaters without life jackets.

Crews were working Thursday to clear the snag from the river channel 1 1/2 miles downstream from Armitage Park.

Vitus expected that the river would again be passable by today.

The fallen tree is in the river's main flow and is practically unavoidable for boaters, who get funneled by the current into a chute that leads directly into it. Boaters with smaller craft were able to use a gravel bar to portage around the snag, he said.

Eugene firefighters spent about an hour Wednesday night controlling a fire that burned an exterior wall of a garage attached to a house at 2873 Elysium Ave. Neighbors reported the fire and firefighters awakened two occupants who were unaware of the blaze, District Chief Bruce Cummings said.

The homeowner told firefighters that he thought ashes from a barbecue had cooled sufficiently when he disposed of them in a trash can next to the garage, Cummings said.

Damage was estimated at more than $20,000. The local chapter of the American Red Cross helped the occupants.

Property records show that the house is owned by James and Glenda Heath.

Elsewhere in Oregon, Multnomah County sheriff's deputies investigated three boating accidents that resulted in injuries and Clackamas County officials closed a county park because of a large and unruly crowd, according to Oregon Sheriff's Association Executive Director Dave Burright.

Sheriff's departments statewide arrested 39 intoxicated drivers, Burright said.

Preliminary statistics from Oregon State Police show that two people died in traffic crashes during the 30-hour Fourth of July holiday period from 6 p.m. Tuesday to midnight Wednesday.

A 19-year-old driver died after crashing into a cow on Highway 20 about 20 miles east of Burns. A 44-year-old male pedestrian died in a hit-and-run crash near the intersection of Southeast 122nd Avenue and Stark Street in Portland.

State troopers arrested 27 intoxicated drivers.

Last year, eight people died in Oregon traffic crashes during a 102-hour Fourth of July holiday period and state troopers made 81 drunken driving arrests.