Fireworks ban up for debate
Topic to be discussed at Tuesday council meeting
MOSES LAKE — For fireworks or against them, representatives from both sides are heating up for a debate on whether to ban the explosive devices from the city of Moses Lake.
The city council will take up a proposal at Tuesday's meeting, and a final decision could be approved within the next month. Councilmen first discussed the ban at their annual retreat earlier this year which, if passed, would prohibit the sale and use of all fireworks within the city limits beginning in 2007.
Fireworks in the city limits are currently allowed for sale during the week leading up to July 4, and are legal to light off on July 4. If the ban takes effect, Moses Lake Fire Chief Tom Taylor said the department will need to educate the community on the ban, and the safety behind fireworks during the one-year phasing in period required by state law.
Taylor has heard from both sides of the issue. Ultimately, he said, his responsibility is to reduce risk in the community, and the number one way to do that is for the council to limit the sale and use of fireworks within the city limits.
"It is really only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed," Taylor said. "There's a lot of near misses out there with fires and injuries that the police department and fire department know nothing about."
According to 2003 data by the National Center for Industry Prevention and Control, 9,300 people were treated in emergency rooms in the U.S., 45 percent of whom were under 18. Sparklers were associated with the most injuries for children under age 5.
In addition to injuries, Taylor also cites the rise in property damage by fireworks during the week surrounding July 4. He said those calls triple on the actual holiday due to the fireworks.
"The rise in property damage around the Fourth of July due to fireworks is incredible," Taylor said. "I don't think anybody can make a valid argument against safety."
One city resident who has seen that damage first hand is Jack Childress. Last Independence Day Childress witnessed an errant firework lose control and cause approximately $10,000 in damage to his backyard. His hedges took 20 years to grow before they were burned last July 4, and the fire department told him if they had arrived 15 minutes later he may have lost his house too. His property's damage was the most recent in his neighborhood that led him to push for the ban beginning last summer.
"There is no safe and sane firework, if it's held carelessly it's insane," Childress said, noting many of the fireworks he sees are illegal. He questions what the damage those fireworks cause are going to do to insurance rates in the community if fireworks laws stay as they are. He also questions whether the funds raised by volunteer groups by fireworks sales are the only ways for the groups to do that.
"I have nothing against fund-raisers, but certainly there ought to be better ways to raise funds," Childress said.
Rich Archer is a director of the Sand Scorpions Off-Road Vehicle club, and 99 percent of his group's annual funding comes from the fireworks stand the Scorpions have operated alongside AARP for the last six years. Archer said fireworks are safe and sane when handled appropriately, and noted a person must be 18 to purchase them.
"It's about time our city leaders started going on what the people want, not what they say is good for us," Archer said.
Archer's stand is one of 11 that were operated within the city limits last year. Seven of those stands were operated by for-profit vendors, but the remaining help fund non-profit groups in the Moses Lake area. If the ban passes, Taylor said there will be other ways for those non-profits to raise money.
"The purpose behind this is not to take funds out of people's pockets," Taylor said. "That will be a result, but the purpose is safety and prevention."
Archer concedes that even if the ban is passed, his group isn't going to stop selling fireworks. Their stand will be poised to move outside the city limits, he said. But opposing the ban for him is about more than just the funding for his group, it's more about his right to light off fireworks on that one night out of the year. Archer said he thinks the council is basing its decision on what if someone gets injured.
"It just seems like the what ifs seem to be running the things. We just can't live on what ifs," Archer said. "This is Independence Day. It's not take away your Independence Day, it's Independence Day."
A ban in the city limits could move the lighting of fireworks to unincorporated Grant County. Roger Hansen is the chief of Grant County Fire District No. 5, which covers fire protection in the unincorporated areas of Grant County surrounding Moses Lake. He admits he has mixed feelings about the banning of fireworks, citing both the civil liberties involved with shooting them off and the risk of fire danger caused by fireworks. But Hansen said he feels the city's decision to ban them in the city limits would be an "intelligent" one.
"I certainly understand why the city would like to do it," Hansen said. "Thank goodness I'm not the one who has to make the decision to legislate it out of existence or condone it. All I have to do is put the fires out."