Fireworks ban enforcement ignites

Spokane city officials have a stern message for people thinking about illegally lighting their fireworks this year: No more Mr. Nice Guy.

Police and fire officials announced Wednesday they’ll ratchet up efforts this year to catch people igniting fireworks in the city, putting more police and firefighters on the streets to patrol and respond for more days.

Police spokesman Cpl. Tom Lee said officials decided to boost the police and fire presence around July 4 because people keep lighting the gunpowder despite a 14-year ban on fireworks in the city and county of Spokane. Over the life of the ban, fires and injuries have decreased.

Up to four reserve officers worked fireworks-enforcement duty for two or three nights last year, Lee said. This year, five full-time officers will work with fire officials in two-person teams for five days enforcing the laws, he said.

Police will hand out $513 tickets to people caught lighting fireworks. If fireworks users start a fire, they could be charged with reckless burning, a misdemeanor, Lee said.

“It’s not going to be a friendly educational environment anymore,” Spokane Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said. “One bottle rocket can impact thousands of people and potentially endanger thousands of lives” if it starts a fire.

Spokane Fire Marshal Lisa Jones said fewer than two dozen tickets were handed out in Spokane last year.

Officials say the 14-year ban in Spokane has dramatically reduced the number of fires and injuries reported around July 4. In the 10 years before the ban was enacted in the early 1990s, 1,043 fires and 290 injuries caused by fireworks were reported in Spokane, according to city statistics. That dropped to 46 fires and 37 injuries caused by fireworks in the first 10 years of the ban.

Spokane city and county aren’t alone in banning fireworks. Five other cities and towns in Spokane County have bans, including Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake and Cheney. Across the Cascades, Seattle and Tacoma have also made lighting fireworks illegal in the city limits.

Spokane city officials have established a tip line (509-625-7059) staffed by volunteers to take reports from citizens of people illegally lighting fireworks. Those volunteers will radio police and fire officials in the field and contact the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office with reports coming from outside the city limits, Lee said.

The tip line received about 400 calls last year, said Jan Doherty, a public educator for the fire department.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan said his department doesn’t have the resources to create a separate task force to enforce fireworks violations, but officers will ticket violators if they get reports.

Steve Harris, a fire prevention coordinator with the state Department of Natural Resources, said record rains in June helped grow a lot of vegetation. Those plants are drying.

“Conditions are prime for a catastrophic wildfire,” he said.

Last year, 25 fires and 13 injuries caused by fireworks were reported to county officials, according to the Washington State Fire Marshal’s Office.

The local city and county bans rile some residents, including some who, in past years, have written letters to The Spokesman-Review saying people who are responsible with fireworks are being punished along with those who aren’t. Critics say that getting rid of personal fireworks displays destroys an important family tradition.

But Jones, Spokane’s fire marshal, sees it differently.

Children are taught to refrain from playing with matches and to be careful around fire, she noted. “But we allow them at the Fourth of July to run around with a 1,200-degree sparkler in the yard.

“It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”