Fourth of July fireworks are a Sacramento tradition, but for how much longer? | Opinion

Fireworks represent one of California’s last great bastions of local control. Communities proudly ban or sanction the sale of “safe and sane” fireworks at their own discretion. San Jose bans them. Sacramento embraces them. Go figure.

The pyrotechnic sizzle on a Sacramento Fourth of July is as core to our local culture as the motorized “claw” machines that pick up our fallen leaves at the onset of winter. The reappearance of the neighborhood firework stand in late June at the nearby grocery parking lot is part of an established seasonal rhythm. No product has such a limited sales lifespan as the firework.

Opinion

The real local engine behind our beloved fireworks is not the handful of national manufacturers coining clever product names such as Atomic Salsa. Our true providers are the armies of volunteers from churches and high school booster groups who operate the stands as their big fund-raisers of the year.

Beware, the army is dwindling. It is a reminder that nothing is immune to change.

Jason Lee, the fire marshal for the Sacramento Fire Department, has a pragmatic view on the city’s July 4 pastime. “We would rather have folks be able to use legal fireworks than using illegal fireworks,” he said. “That is why we would rather folks utilize ‘safe and sane,’ state-approved fireworks.”

He has some statistics to back it up. In 2021, when we all were perhaps a little loopy coming out of the pandemic, Sacramento firefighters confiscated 2,500 pounds of illegal fireworks during the Fourth period. Residents called for help 84 times.

Things were saner last year. The fire department responded to 20 fewer calls about fireworks. The unsafe and the unsane confiscation plummeted to a mere 350 pounds.

The local bureaucracy of the Sacramento fireworks, says Lee, starts with the city’s Revenue Division. This is where the big manufacturers apply to resurrect each and every local stand from June28 to July 4.

Once past the Revenue Division, the Fire Department is notified detailing which local booth organization is going to run the approved stand. “We often see the same fireworks booth vendors, the same organizations, year after year,” Lee said.

But their numbers our dwindling. “About 10 years ago, we had about 150 fireworks booths,” he said. This year’s number is down to 97.

That is a drop worth noting. Is a Sacramento tradition dying?

Still sparkling

Fear not. At least for now

“Even though the number of booths has been reduced, the number of fireworks being sold is the same, even more,” said Lee.

These nonprofits have proven to be a political force to never be reckoned with in the county. Roger Dickinson, a Sacramento County supervisor from 1994 to 2010, remembers only one time when the legality of residential fireworks ever reached the board.

Manufacturers wanted to briefly sell fireworks locally before New Year’s Eve, 2000. It was a slam dunk.

“We allowed it,” said Dickinson in a recent interview, soon after he had coincidentally purchased his own stash of sparklers from a stand near his North Sacramento home – staffed by a local church.

Our Sacramento fund-raising fun has changed over the years. These days, “you don’t have Bingo,” Dickinson observed. “You don’t have a lot of things that nonprofits used to use as fundraisers. Fireworks become a mainstay for some.”

A secret ingredient lies behind California’s appearance of local control when it comes to fireworks. Credit the Office of the State Fire Marshal for saving us from ourselves when it comes to our desire to light things that go boom, the prospects for things getting out of hand.

In the U.S., it turns out no uniform definition exists of a firework that is legally “safe and sane.”

Firework safety and sanity is left to each state. The nation, mirroring our politics, is all over the pyrotechnic map.

California in this regard is, well, California.

“California has more stringent fireworks regulations than the national standard, only allowing consumer fireworks that are tested and approved by the State Fire Marshal,” said Kara Garrett, associate program analyst for the fire marshal.

An example. Firework sparks.

“Sparks cannot exceed 10 feet in height,” she said.

This regulation is a full 2 feet shorter in vertical sparkling than, say, Fairfax County in Virginia.

The U.S. Products Safety Commission sets the ceiling for the explosive ingredients inside the fireworks. From there, it is up to the locals.

Celebration and vigilance

As we celebrate our country and independence, this is also a moment for vigilance. Scanning the threats to our access to “safe and sane” fireworks, there is clearly the federal government. And the State Fire Marshal. And our ever-changing economy and the potential that nonprofits can make money some easier way.

Could the local political winds shift?

Dickinson suggests a potentially powerful constituency has yet to be fully heard in the discussion, perhaps due to a language barrier. This stakeholder may be right under your feet.

“I do have a great deal of sympathy for people’s dogs who are bothered or disturbed by the fireworks,” he said. “I don’t know how to fix that.”

The future of Sacramento neighborhood fireworks shows may be as tenuous as it is for many so cherished. For now, celebrate. Sacramento, light those sparkling beams.