The Fourth of July holiday weekend proved a busy time for Island first responders, who responded to several calls, including a fire in a downtown Edgartown restaurant Saturday morning. But Island police said this was the first time in several years that they did not respond to any calls for serious accidents during the holiday festivities.

A fire in a kitchen exhaust fan caused extensive damage to the Atlantic Fish and Chop House at the foot of Main street in Edgartown. Flames shot out the rooftop vent, responders said, and smoke filled the upper floors. Downtown Edgartown streets were closed for a good part of the morning.

Deputy fire chief Alex Schaeffer and Edgartown police officer Ryan Ruley happened to be walking by the popular restaurant when they heard alarms go off, which helped firefighters get a quick start in dousing the flames.

“The fire was extinguished very quickly,” said fire chief Peter Shemeth Monday. “We had people outside when it happened. We had Oak Bluffs come down for assistance and we were able to put it out relatively quickly.”

Chief Shemeth said the fire was contained to a small area, and the building remains structurally sound. The restaurant, and the private Boathouse Club in the same building, remained closed Monday.

Edgartown responders were kept busy on other fronts as well. On Friday night, firefighters responded to a brush fire on South Beach. Chief Shemeth said the fire was caused by people lighting illegal fireworks.

“Setting them off is illegal to begin with, but if people used a little common sense, we wouldn’t have to deal with something like this,” Chief Shemeth said.

On Sunday, firefighters responded to a home off Katama Road, where smoke filled three rooms after a battery melted down. Chief Shemeth said one of the home’s occupants took a powerful battery from out of a drone because it got wet, and put the battery on a desk. The battery shorted out internally and began to fill the rooms with smoke.

“If there had been papers on the desk it would have started a fire, there’s no question in my mind,” Chief Shemeth said. “It can create enough heat to melt down and set the house on fire.”

Traffic was jammed on Beach Road along Joseph A. Sylvia State Beach at about 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon when a 1996 Jeep Cherokee caught fire. Vehicle owner Charles Tucy said he noticed smoke coming from the underside of the car as he and a passenger traveled down Beach road. “There was smoke and we pulled off the road here and I emptied a whole fire extinguisher on it and it just kept burning,” Mr. Tucy told the Gazette at the scene.

Oak Bluffs fire chief John Rose said emergency response was delayed by drivers who got in the way of the three fire trucks which responded to the scene.

“When we got here the car was fully engulfed in flames and three other vehicles were in danger of catching fire when we first pulled up,” Chief Rose told the Gazette. “It was a challenging location to get to though, because no one was yielding for our vehicles. There was a line of traffic that cars were turning out of so they wouldn’t get stuck and they were literally blocking the fire truck.”

Chief Rose said Monday the fire is still under investigation, but the cause is believed to be some debris that got caught in the vehicle’s exhaust system.

The large number of holiday visitors on the Island was apparent on Norton Point Beach, which was filled to capacity with over-sand permitted vehicles. Trustees of the Reservations superintendent Chris Kennedy said rangers closed the beach to vehicles on Friday and Sunday because of overcrowding.

On Friday, “we had 279 vehicles on about three-fourths of a mile of beach,” Mr. Kennedy said. “This was a first. It’s not something we like to do, but when you get down to it, can we get an ambulance or a cruiser or even lifeguards down the beach? It would be difficult. If we put more vehicles on the beach, probably not. So we erred on the side of caution.”

The beach was closed at noon and reopened to vehicle traffic at about 5 p.m. Friday.

On Saturday, with overcast weather, about 220 vehicles were on the beach, and it remained open all day. But on Sunday, Norton Point was closed to vehicles again, from about noon to 3 p.m.

The problem was magnified because much of Norton Point Beach remains closed to protect nesting shore birds. Mr. Kennedy said Trustees may have to consider limiting permit access in the future.

“You’ve got to consider that,” he said. “It may be we’ll put a restriction on day passes. There are a number of different strategies. We’re going to make daily evaluations. It’s nothing you can predict.”

Edgartown police made two arrests Saturday night for people operating under the influence of alcohol, but Sgt. Craig Edwards said it was a mostly uneventful holiday. In recent years, the department was taxed by calls for serious accidents and other incidents that happened during the annual Fourth of July parade.

“This was probably the first time in several years that we didn’t have any major incidents during the parade,” Sergeant Edwards said. “It was busy, but we had everything in place.”

Over the weekend, Edgartown police also responded to six medical assists, three calls for disorderly persons, and four noise complaints, including two that involved illegal fireworks.

Lieut. Tim Williamson of the Oak Bluffs police said the holiday weekend was very crowded, but service calls and arrests were down from last year. Oak Bluffs police made four arrests Saturday night and early Sunday morning, while fielding 107 calls that required police response.

Tisbury police report the holiday weekend was mostly quiet. “We made it out unscathed,” Lieut. Eerik Meisner said. “We had two people put into protective custody, that’s about it.”

Megan Cerullo contributed reporting.