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University of Kentucky Final Four Wins Ignites 42 Celebratory Fires In Lexington

By Jared Sauceda
Published on: 19:27 PST, Apr 5, 2014

Firefighters and police in Lexington, KY have had a busy Saturday night. As of 1:30 am, Lexington fire officials have said they’ve had to extinguish 42 fires and treat 12 patients as a result of city-wide celebrations of the University of Kentucky’s win against Wisconsin in the NCAA Final Four, according to a report from KentuckySports.com.

After a tense game, Kentucky beat Wisconsin with a 74-73 victory. The winning shot was a three-pointer by Aaron Harrison with only 5.7 seconds remaining in the game. From the Washington Post, Harrison had this to say about his game-saving shot, which puts Kentucky one victory away from their second NCAA title in three years:

“Coach [John Calipari] said he wanted me to take the shot. That gave me a lot of confidence. My teammates had confidence in me; I just fed off that.”

“Guys that make game-winners are not afraid to miss them,” Calipari said of Harrison. “And he’s not afraid to miss. They have amnesia from play-to-play.”

The win for the Kentucky Wildcats puts them up against the University of Connecticut Huskies for the National Championship on Monday.

It wasn’t long after Harrison’s three-pointer that reports started pouring into the Lexington police and fire departments. Officers quickly responded to the reports of fireworks, couch fires and even a report of someone “bouncing balcony to balcony”.

Police started using crowd control tactics to handle the growing number of people in the streets of Lexington. Shortly before midnight, there were reports of more than 3,000 people around State Street and the surrounding areas. Many celebrating fans apparently took to taking selfies with the patrolling officers.

In less a less destructive display of celebrations, fans took to Twitter to cheer for the Kentucky Wildcats’ win, with some tweets showing the joyous fracas in Lexington:

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