This year’s Fourth of July celebrations in D.C. were unlike any others in the past, with protests against police brutality continuing and a pandemic still swirling.

With Mayor Muriel Bowser asking residents to stay home earlier this week, it appears many abided by the request. In the hours before flyovers began, large swaths of the National Mall were nearly empty and the Lincoln Memorial still had plenty of space for social distancing.

Metro ridership numbers appear to back this up. According to WMATA spokesperson Dan Stessel, approximately only 37,000 Metro trips were taken yesterday. That’s less than one-tenth of 2019’s figures, when over 400,000 trips were taken on July 4 (which itself was nearly a 2% increase over 2018).

From 2015-2019, an average of about 397,000 Metro trips were taken on July 4.

Even compared to the last three Saturdays when Metro averaged about 29,000 riders, July Fourth ridership increased by only about 22%.

A spokesperson for the National Park Service said the agency no longer estimates crowd sizes on the holiday and hasn’t in years.

With folks not going to the National Mall for fireworks, it seemed like many took it upon themselves to create some red glare and sparks bursting in the air. Social media was full of folks launching their own neighborhood fireworks.

However, despite this apparent influx, D.C. Fire and EMS said that it ran only a few more calls this year compared to 2019. According to Vito Maggiolo, public information officer for D.C. Fire and EMS, DC FEMS ran 718 calls last night. In 2019, it ran 711 calls.

In addition, there were 208 non-EMS calls — a broad category including stalled elevators, gas leaks, and fires — which is about twice the daily average (and about 16% more than the 175 calls on July 4, 2019). A number of those calls were “outdoor fires” like trees, trash cans, and dumpster fires, but that’s a similar amount compared to the holiday in years past, says Maggiolo.

There were two significant incidents, including a structure fire on 1st Street SW when a firework ignited an air conditioning unit and displaced three people. An adult male also suffered a significant hand injury from a firework near Oxon Run Park. On Friday, a man suffered a fatal fireworks injury in Brightwood Park.

Like in recent years, D.C.’s air quality took a hit due to the smoke resulting from fireworks. According to NASA research scientist Ryan Stauffer on Twitter, this was the second straight July Fourth weekend when D.C. experienced a Code Red day and may have set the record for the highest hourly rate of particle pollution.

It seems all very 2020 that this Independence Day in D.C. may have been significantly more muted than in years’ past, but even more smoky.

This post was updated with information about a man suffering a fatal fireworks injury on Friday.