Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Damage from fireworks increases dramatically from previous years
NORRISTOWN » It was a busy holiday weekend for the Norristown Fire Department.
Fires started by the use of fireworks increased dramatically over 2019, noted Deputy Fire Chief Richard Lockhart.
“From July 1 to July 6 we’ve had 10 fires involving fireworks. Two of them involved buildings. Last year during the same sixday stretch, there was one incident, which was a trash fire,” Lockhart said. “Going from one to 10 in a year is quite a drastic leap.”
The department’s message, accompanied by photos of the damage, was posted on Facebook: “There is no place in town that is safe to use fireworks. So please don’t use them!”
“A common theme with the Dumpster fires seems to be that they use the fireworks and then they don’t extinguish what’s left and they sit there and smolder and then ignite everything that’s nearby on fire,” Lockhart said.
“Make sure they’re extinguished, and that the casings and everything else that’s left, are doused with water and are not near anything combustible, because there’s a chance they could ignite.”
Irritated residents posted their complaints on Facebook over the weekend.
“Why aren’t the laws being enforced? Every night they are at the same location and the police have been notified. I fear for my house and garage to go up in flames while I try to sleep,” one resident wrote.
“Why would someone not wet (fireworks) before putting into the trash?”
“Why is it allowed?” another resident wanted to know.
“Why it’s allowed is that the state changed the fireworks laws a couple of years ago,” Lockhart noted. “The big one was that the rockets and Roman candles and all that stuff was illegal before and now it’s legal. You go to one of those tents which are all over the place and they’re readily available. In Norristown, the caveat with the law is that they can’t be used within 150 feet of what they call an occupied building, but even if there’s nobody there it’s still considered an occupied building.”
Fireworks also can’t be used on the street or on any municipal property, he added.
“And they can’t be used on private property without permission of the owner. So if you look at Norristown, these tight little three and a half square miles, there’s not a lot of places that you can legally use fireworks. Our concern is using them near the buildings and the waste that’s left behind that can still contain some hot embers and can still ignite. In all those trash fires I think there was one that was ignited by actually throwing fireworks in a Dumpster. The other ones was stuff that appeared to be detonated … and that’s what ignited. The building fires were relatively minor,” Lockhart said, “but they could have been something if our guys weren’t there as quick as they were.”
The fine for setting off fireworks is around $100, Lockhart pointed out.
Lt. Michael Bishop of the Norristown Police Department said fines had been limited to one or two because most fireworks enthusiasts readily complied with officers’ warnings.
“They had officers working the detail and staying on top of it and everybody (the officers) encountered basically stopped as soon as they were told about the ordinance and lighting up fireworks close to houses,” Bishop said.
“The officers were out specifically looking for people shooting off fireworks. They contacted about 11 people and all but one complied with stopping the practice. We show them the ordinance and tell them it’s unsafe, it’s a fire hazard, and everybody but one person stopped.
With the dry weather any spark could ignite a fire that could be devastating to a block, especially a block of row homes. People have to be mindful of that with trying to shoot off fireworks,” he added.
The ideal situation is for people to just stop using them altogether, Lockhart said.
“It’s really hard for any of the public safety agencies to enforce the law. People need to have some common sense and not use this stuff in Norristown where the buildings are so close,” he said. “It’s where they’re shooting them, and what they’re doing with them afterwards as far as extinguishing them, that’s the problem.”