OFFICIALS URGE RESIDENTS TO REMEMBER FIREWORKS ILLEGAL, RISKY

Year-round fire season, drought raise danger

When it comes to backyard or beach fireworks in San Diego County, there’s nothing new to report. The sale, possession and use of fireworks is illegal everywhere in San Diego County — and has been for decades.

But every Fourth of July, that detail fails to deter revelers from celebrating the holiday with illegal firecrackers, Roman candles and bottle rockets, many which can be easily purchased across the border in Mexico. Or consumers head north to legally buy so-called “safe and sane” fireworks — sparkers, smoke balls and snakes —from some Orange County cities.

That means San Diego fire officials are again urging residents to leave the pyrotechnics and explosions to professionals, noting that with the state in a drought, fires are a year-round worry.

“I think people turn a blind eye to the legality, and they still want to do their own thing for their kids and they put their kids at risk,” said Mark Alvarez, a firefighter/paramedic/bomb technician with San Diego Fire-rescue Department.

There was a jump in fireworks injuries and deaths in the U.S. starting in 2020, a spike some attribute to COVID-19 lockdowns.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, at least 18 people died from fireworks-related incidents in 2020, compared to 12 reported the previous year. Nine deaths were reported last year.

In 2020, about 15,600 people in the U.S. were treated in hospital emergency departments for fireworks injuries, up from about 10,000 in 2019. Last year there were an estimated 11,500 injuries.

Alvarez, who has worked as a city firefighter for 26 years, has seen the damage fireworks can do up close.

“In the last two weeks I’ve had two different people who were injured by fireworks,” he said. “One was superficial burns; one was an injury to a finger. They aren’t going to lose the finger but the finger was broken.”

In the second incident, in Pacific Beach, the beachgoer was trying to shoot a Roman candle at another person “and it went off in their hand.”

Alvarez said poor qualitycontrol in the manufacturing of some fireworks sometimes leads to bad outcomes. Fuses sometimes light quicker than expected, giving people no time to drop or throw them.

With so many of San Diego’s residential neighborhoods located on canyons, firefighters worry that errant fireworks shot into the air will land on a roof or a brushy patch and easily spark a fire.

“Our fire season is now year-round because of the drought. This time of year we have an increase in personnel for the holiday weekend just because we are anticipating more fires in the canyons around homes because people light off things like Roman candles or the fireworks that lift off and go into the air,” he said.

“Oftentimes they land in other people’s backyards or canyons — it is just a race against time to get there and put those canyons out before (the fires) spread and get to the houses.”

Alvarez said small children can be amused by toys that light up with LED lights. He said he’s given some of those to his own grandchildren. Families can easily check out professional displays like the Big Bay Boom fireworks show on San Diego Bay or other events planned around the region.

“If you want to stay in your car, stay in your car,” he said. “Go watch the commercial fireworks shows. Don’t take a chance at lighting your neighborhood on fire.”

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com