Home fireworks were the worst ever this July 4. Why won’t Kansas City enforce its laws? | Opinion
As a lifelong resident of Kansas City, Missouri, I have experienced decades of July Fourth celebrations. Public displays of fireworks, including those at nearby Union Station, Liberty Memorial and the riverfront, are welcome. However, this year’s holiday was the worst I have experienced. That was due in large part to a neighbor who decided it was within his rights to ignite stadium-style fireworks in the yard of Primitivo Garcia Elementary School at 17th and Jarboe streets, thereby posing a real threat to the surrounding community.
Setting off fireworks within city limits, specifically in our neighborhoods, is becoming blatantly out of control. It presents an ongoing hazard to the welfare of residents, homes and buildings, pets, wildlife and the associated surrounding landscape, including public parks.
We should all be reminded that fireworks present a clear and present danger to humans, especially those with respiratory conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Exposure to toxic fallout — including gunpowder, accelerants, heavy metals, ozone, carbon dioxide and nitric oxide, to name a few — exacerbates these illnesses. Those with PTSD and our beloved house pets suffer greatly, too.
Fireworks cause distress for wildlife as well. Explosions from fireworks, for instance, frighten birds, which may “abandon their nests or habitats entirely,” according to the Humane Society of the United States. Like humans, they can be exposed to the toxic chemicals in fireworks as they fly higher into the atmosphere. Ultimately, the anxiety they experience for any length of time “uses up vital energy reserves needed for survival,” the Humane Society tells us.
Animals often mistakenly ingest fireworks litter, with disastrous results. Pollutants from fireworks are often washed into waterways and have the potential to contaminate our water supply.
In a letter to the mayor and City Council this week, I pointed out that what took place this July 4 in the Westside neighborhood is extremely dangerous and outrageous — not to mention illegal according to city ordinances.
Kelli Austin, who lives adjacent to the Primitivo Garcia schoolyard, said that the fireworks were so loud that she feared hearing damage. She and her husband watched from under the roof of their front door as sparks flew over their heads and house, and heard the click, click, click of debris as it landed.
While Austin is not against public fireworks displays, she is against the obscene number of fireworks in the hands of the general public. “I am against the PTSD-inducing sound of bombs,” she said. “I am against the gray cloud of gunpowder smoke hanging heavily in the air. I am against the never-ending piles of trash and debris. I am against the danger of bodily harm and harm to property. I don’t like that this goes on for days, not hours. It is my understanding that fireworks are illegal in KCMO. So why does this continue to happen?”
Other neighbors, including Nancy Bounds, feels that this Fourth of July, in particular, was “decidedly more dark, entitled and dangerous. … Neighbors were shooting fireworks in front of my home,” she said. “At one point, a truck pulled up and deposited a large box of fireworks, which were immediately set off in front of the 100-plus-year-old walnut tree that straddles my property line.” Fireworks debris fell over the tree, Bounds’ home and the neighbor’s roof and porch, “without any regard to the consequences of these lighted particles falling on drought-stricken lawns, gardens and roofs. “
To this end, Assistant Fire Marshal Tom Kievlan voiced his concerns to me in a phone conversation regarding the escalation of fireworks throughout the city. He remarked that this is a “real problem, yet there is no manpower to enforce these regulations.”
I am sure most will agree that something has to change regarding the preponderance of fireworks, as we seem to be beyond the precipice of real and significant endangerment to the residents of Kansas City. What can we do to stop this?
Cydney E. Millstein is the founder and principal of Architectural & Historical Research LLC. She lives in Kansas City.
