We suspect the Washington State fire marshal’s office is considering a new focus for its next fireworks safety campaign.

Investigators announced this week that they believe Spokane’s Whitley Fuel fire in July was caused by an arsonist using fireworks. Witnesses have described watching Timothy L. Jacobs, 19, set off fireworks near the fuel depot.

The dramatic fire shot orange flames and black smoke into the blue summer sky. The column of smoke was visible from across the city. And the cost of related damages has been estimated at $20 million.

That’s more than twice the property loss connected to all fireworks-related fires reported to the state fire marshal in 2006. That year the fire marshal’s office recorded 794 fires with a total of $9 million in property loss.

The total of 1,001 fires and fireworks injuries that year amounted to a 26 percent increase over the previous seven-year average.

Clearly, this state’s scattered patches of county and city fireworks restrictions and bans aren’t entirely working.

The level of destruction caused by this fire indicates that stiffer restrictions should be considered.

State law still allows fireworks to be sold and set off around the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve holidays. Fireworks stands on the Spokane Indian Reservation and the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation do a brisk business every summer, selling everything from firecrackers to aerial mortars, many of which wind up being illegally fired in cities such as Spokane.

Proponents argue that setting off fireworks has long been a family tradition. Others say that on Independence Day, of all days, Americans should have the freedom to blow off bottle rockets.

But contrasted with the damage caused by the Whitley Fuel fire, these arguments ring hollow. That blaze has been called one of the worst commercial fires in Spokane history. Were fireworks not so widely available, it might never have occurred.

State legislators and tribal leaders must examine the lessons of this fire. Surely most can agree that fireworks belong in professional public displays, not in the hands of children or potential arsonists.

And at the very least, we won’t be surprised to find next summer’s state fireworks safety campaign featuring photos of the Whitley Fuel blaze. It’s likely to be 2007’s most stunning example of fireworks-related fire – and its dreadful consequences.