Fireworks Ban Working Fires, Injuries Down Despite Availability

Want a quiet place to hang out on Independence Day?

Try a Spokane emergency room.

Fireworks go on sale today in many Eastern Washington communities. In Idaho and on many American Indian reservations, the stands already are open.

But not in Spokane, where fireworks cannot be legally used, except in licensed, public displays. The same rules apply elsewhere in Spokane County, and in most of the small towns within its boundaries. Some other jurisdictions, including Ferry County, have similar regulations.

Since the Spokane ban started eight years ago, fireworks-related fires and injuries have been reduced drastically.

Spokane residents still can drive less than an hour in any direction to find something that explodes or showers sparks. But statistics suggest few of them do - or at least that they’re not using them at home.

In the years before the ban, the Spokane Fire Department typically responded to 28 fireworks-related injuries the week of July 4. Since the ban, there has been an average of five injuries that week.

City firefighters used to respond to an average of 123 fires caused by fountains, sparklers and other fireworks during the holiday week. That has dropped to five fires since the ban.

It’s much the same in the suburbs, said Mark Grover, assistant chief of the Spokane Valley Fire Department.

“Typically anymore, the Fourth isn’t any more dangerous than a normal holiday weekend,” Grover said. “We can handle it with our normal staffing levels.”

Last year on Independence Day, no one was treated at Sacred Heart Medical Center for a fireworksrelated injury, said Debbie Markin, clinical nurse specialist in the hospital emergency room.

“We still have people who injure themselves with fireworks, with M-80s, but it’s not necessarily around the Fourth of July,” Markin said.

In the early years of the Spokane ban, complaints were common. But residents apparently have learned to live with it, said County Commissioner Kate McCaslin, who ranks the ban far below potholes, billboards and smoking among issues that generate complaints to her office.

“Only one time did I have somebody cuss me out,” she said.

Fireworks remain a tradition in three of Spokane County’s small towns. Stands open today in Deer Park and Medical Lake. They open July 2 in Airway Heights. Dates vary in other Eastern Washington communities, and some allow the use of fireworks only on July 4.

Deer Park Mayor Mike Wolfe said his town has few problems stemming from legal fireworks, those labeled “safe and sane.” They include such things as fountains, Clucking Chickens, Whistling Petes, carbon snakes and sparklers.

“All of the injuries are caused by illegal fireworks,” he said. “They go to Montana or Idaho or up to the Colville Indian Reservation and then bring them here and shoot them off.”

Bottle rockets, Roman Candles, missiles and firecrackers are illegal in Washington and in Kootenai County, Idaho. But authorities can’t regulate the sale or use of such devices on tribal lands.

“If you have to go to the reservation to buy it, then you can only use it on the reservation,” said Capt. Ben Wolfinger with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.

“If it explodes or flies in the air it’s illegal.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: FAST FACT Injuries

Since the Spokane ban started eight years ago, fireworks-related fires and injuries have been reduced drastically.

Staff writer Angie Gaddy contributed to this report.