A Bang-Up Beginning To Holiday Fourth Of July Crackles With Injuries And Foolishness, Authorities Say

Police swarmed over a campground Thursday after a Bureau of Land Management maintenance worker reported shots had been fired at him.

Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies scoured the brush. Idaho State Police chased down a suspect car.

Finally, a deputy held the culprits: an exploded M-80 firecracker and a rocket nose cone. The “shots” actually were illegal fireworks.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Soumas shook his head.

“Yes sir, it’s going to be a weekend,” he said.

The mix-up began when a maintenance worker mowing the lawn at Mica Bay Boater’s Park saw people running in the brush. He heard what he thought were two gunshots and later observed the people leaving.

Assuming he had been shot at, the worker radioed police for help. Within minutes, several armed officers arrived.

An Idaho State Police officer en route to the park spotted a gray and red car going away and recorded its licence plate number.

The same car later was stopped in Coeur d’Alene. Armed officers, fearing for their safety, aimed guns at three adults and one juvenile in the car.

The drama proved unnecessary. After determining that the supposed gunshots had been only fireworks being detonated, three people in the car merely were scolded for having illegal fireworks.

Across the Panhandle, police, hospitals and fire departments are gearing up for a frenzied Fourth of July holiday.

At Kootenai Medical Center, emergency department director Roger Evans said the hospital gets about 30 fireworks injuries a year, mostly burns or eye injuries.

“And we see the tip-of-the-iceberg injuries,” he said. “There’s got to be a whole world of minor injuries out there.”

Many of the injuries stem from fireworks that are illegal under Idaho law.

“What I tell people is: If they had to go down to the Indian reservation to buy it, it’s illegal,” said Capt. Ben Wolfinger, of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department. Fireworks that fly through the air or explode, he said, are illegal. Possession of them is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Flying fireworks, such as bottle rockets and Roman candles, create many fires each year, he said.

“You shoot something - on fire - out into the woods. It doesn’t make much sense,” Wolfinger said.

In St. Maries, Benewah County Undersheriff Ed Westbrook said non-Indians must abide by state fireworks laws, even on a reservation.

And he said even so-called “safe and sane” fireworks, available at stands across the Panhandle, can cause injuries and fires.

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