Council focuses on fireworks
Proposed ordinance would allow fines up to $1,000
The Woodland City Council discussed the introduction of a “Social Host Liability” ordinance that would allow fire department, law enforcement and code enforcement personnel to hold people responsible for the discharge of illegal fireworks.
“Woodland has seen a significant increase in the use of illegal fireworks, traditionally around the Fourth of July but even throughout the year and on New Year’s Eve as well,” City Manager Ken Hiatt explained during the Tuesday meeting via Zoom. “As a result, we’re seeing an increase in response calls for service both in fire and in the police departments.”
Hiatt said these calls are putting a strain on the city’s resources around these holiday seasons when these departments would prefer to respond to more important incidences.
“When we are responding to those types of calls, that prevents us from responding to other emergencies,” Woodland Police Chief Derrek Kaff said. “Over the Fourth of July, we had a six-hour time period where we had over 600 calls for service in six hours.”
He noted that the police department responds to between 1,400 and 1,600 calls on an average week.
“We’re never going to have enough police officers or fire personnel to respond to all those calls and that’s why this ordinance is so greatly needed,” Kaff emphasized.
The new ordinance allows personnel to issue fines of up to $1,000 to people in possession of real property or the host of a gathering on public or private property responsible for the discharge of any illegal fireworks. Officers currently have to witness somebody either holding the illegal firework or lighting it before they could issue a citation.
Kaff said he hopes to have this ordinance in place before New Year’s, which is the city’s secondhighest day of the year of calls regarding illegal fireworks.
He also added that the police department has been collecting a list of locations and addresses where it has received illegal firework complaints over the past year.
“They’re all going to get a very specific letter so that they can be educated about the coming new ordinance and the potential for fines,” he highlighted. “The hope is that by educating the community they’ll change their behavior without us having to take enforcement action.”
Woodland Fire Chief Eric Zane added that illegal fireworks are responsible for millions of dollars of damage to property and cause fires across the nation.
“Half of all fires reported in this nation are as a result of illegal fireworks,” Zane stated. “In 2020, there were an estimated 16,000 individuals hospitalized due to fireworks being released in their presence.”
He recommends that people download an app called “Nail `em,” — available on iOS and Google Play — which allows people the ability to report the possession, sale or use of illegal fireworks in their communities.
“Part of our outreach will be implementing and utilizing the app,” Zane noted.
Councilman Rich Lansburgh argued that the implementation of the app is going to be a very important tool.
“I hope that there’s some training involved with the public on how to use this thing,” he said. “Maybe the neighborhood watch folks will be helpful in that regard.”
Mayor Tom Stallard said he’s grateful to have something to consider to be able to address this issue that the city has been dealing with for years.
“We all know people who get a big kick out of these illegal fireworks and set them off and think it’s a jolly time but the fact is it’s not right to have fun at the expense of others,” Stalled asserted. “We have people in our community who are a little less settled emotionally and this is very disturbing for them. Probably every pet in town suffers terribly from these explosions going off.”
The council accepted the first reading of the ordinance and it will be back for final approval at a future meeting.