Illegal Fireworks: Who’s Kidding Who?

Idaho firefighters, already taxed by battling wildfires across the Gem State, are more than a bit nervous about the next 48 hours, when thousands of fireworks, many of them illegal, will be set off. The Bureau of Land Management confirmed on Monday that the Jump Creek Canyon Fire, which torched 1,400 acres southwest of Marsing, was caused by fireworks. Idaho’s fireworks paradox is nothing new. In fact, Fat City Fireworks, a Costco-sized warehouse 20 miles south of Boise, proudly hawks aisles of illegal fireworks. You can sell illegal pyrotechnics in the Gem State, but customers are required to sign an affidavit promising to transport the explosives out of state. “It’s ironic, isn’t it? They sell them but then tell you can’t use them here,” Dr. Kenneth Bramwell, an emergency medicine specialist at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center told BW in July 2011/ George Prentiss , Boise Weekly. More here. (SR file photo: Fireworks sold on Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation are illegal in most regions of the state)

Question: Do you consider illegal fireworks to be a problem in your neighborhood?