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Fireworks Too Hot To Handle?

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: June 21, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Abuse of fireworks in West Pasco backyards usually lights the fuses on tempers of area residents about every Fourth of July.

Despite complaints, officials say there is little they can do about individuals buying and setting off illegal fireworks, such as bottle rockets.

Even after a task force report in January, state lawmakers did not enact any fireworks reforms during the legislative session this spring. The current law has a loophole allowing people to buy fireworks for a limited number of uses, such as scaring birds away from crops.

So that means a statewide moratorium on local fireworks controls remains in effect. That's the opinion the Florida Senate's general counsel, Jay Vail, gave to the staff of state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

Before counties and cities could regain regulatory authority over fireworks sales and use, state lawmakers would have to repeal the moratorium, which went into effect March 8, 2007, Greg Giordano, chief legislative assistant to Fasano, explained.

"As far as I know our hands are still tied," Commissioner Jack Mariano said.

Mariano, however, would prefer a statewide solution to fireworks controls. If Pasco had its own fireworks regulations, Mariano believes, residents would simply travel to counties with looser oversight on sales to purchase pyrotechnics.

"Believe me, I do not know the answer," Commissioner Ann Hildebrand said.

The state moratorium stopped in its tracks a plan its backers hoped would, in effect, reduce the number of places fireworks could be sold, Hildebrand recalled. "We tried to get Pasco exempt" from the moratorium.

The county ordinance would have required fireworks vendors to sell their goods only in permanent buildings. Most fireworks sales in the county are conducted from roadside tents that sprout up twice a year, just before the Fourth of July and New Years Eve.

"There's nothing to do at this time," Hildebrand said of county controls over fireworks.

"They go nuts on the Fourth of July," Henry Alwardt, a charter boat captain known as Capt. Blackbeard, explained about fireworks fans along the canals in his Hudson-area neighborhood.

He has witnessed neighbors firing bottle rockets at each other across canals. "They start way before the Fourth of July with these bottle rockets, that's their favorite thing."

"It's a bomb," Alwardt said about the gasoline tank on a boat if fireworks debris sets off the fuel. Many boaters ventilate gas tanks, releasing gas fumes that could be ignited by stray pyrotechnics, Alwardt believes.

"All it takes is one bottle rocket and there's going to be a chain reaction" of boat fires, Alwardt fears. He recalls incidents such as a barge fire in Key Largo from fireworks.

"There'll be no putting it out" if a fiberglass boat catches fire, he believes.

In addition, the noise from fireworks "scares the animals to death," Alwardt said about his pets.

Alwardt intends to stay on his boat far from shore for much of the holiday.

Fireworks were suspected of starting a garage fire in one case a few years ago, New Port Richey Fire Department Fire Marshal Alex Onishenko said.

Anything that shoots into the air is illegal, Onishenko emphasized. "It's really an exploitation of a loophole in the law," he said about fireworks abuses.

Unlike impromptu backyard fireworks shows, extensive safeguards are taken at professional displays, reducing the potential for injury, Onishenko said.

"Everything should be good to go" for the June 28 fireworks display at the Main Street Bash, the fire marshal said. This year the pyrotechnics will be lit from a platform in Orange Lake, across from Sims Park.

Drought conditions in previous years have threatened to cancel even professional displays. There has been enough rainfall so far this year to allow the public fireworks show to be presented, Onishenko said.

"It's dangerous for people to use the fireworks in their backyards," New Port Richey City Manager Thomas O'Neill said. He encouraged people to watch the Main Street Bash display instead. "It really is a spectacular display and one you don't want to miss."

The Pasco Sheriff's Office typically fields many complaints about fireworks abuses.

So many complaints, in fact, the Sheriff's Office devotes considerable space to the topic on its Web site.

Before the statewide moratorium, the Sheriff's Office during the Fourth of July 2006 tried to enforce the fireworks law, the Web site explains. Few pyrotechnics were confiscated and only two criminal cases were made. The existing law is difficult to enforce because of loopholes. The deputy usually must witness someone using illegal fireworks to be able to write a citation.

The Sheriff's Office cites numerous hazards with fireworks. In 2005, 10,800 fireworks-related injuries were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms, according to figures from the National Fire Protection Association. Nearly half the people injured by fireworks were under the age of 15.

On Independence Day in a typical year, more U.S. fires are reported than on any other day, and fireworks account for half of those fires, more than any other cause of fires.

Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.

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