Fireworks lobby intends to fight proposed sales ban

A Vancouver councillor wants the sale of consumer fireworks before Halloween banned by 2021.

In a motion going before city council on Oct. 22, Green Coun. Pete Fry will ask that city staff work with Vancouver’s fire and police departments to come up with a plan to “ban the retail sale of consumer fireworks to the public by 2021.”

At present, consumer fireworks can be purchased and used in Vancouver between Oct. 25 and 31 by a person over 19 who has an online permit issued by the fire chief.

“Vancouver is one of the only local cities that allow the sale and use of consumer fireworks,” Fry states in the motion.

There are 12 cities in Metro Vancouver that have outright banned the sale and use of fireworks, while others have heavy restrictions in place.

“Each year, Vancouver Police Department calls for service dramatically increase during the five days leading up to (Halloween). In a 2018 memo, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services compiled damages and costs over the last 12 years and found that the average fire loss per year due to the use of consumer fireworks is $379,000.”

Vancouver fire services Capt. Jonathan Gormick confirmed the $379,000 figure. However, he added “with fireworks, the very few large incidents we have sporadically over the years tend to have huge dollar figures.”

The largest fireworks-related blaze in the past decade occurred on Halloween 2015, and led to the destruction of a home at East 10th Avenue and Woodland Drive.

Gormick said the fire department wouldn’t comment on whether it supported the ban.

“We support the direction of our elected officials,” he said, while adding that a good Halloween night for a firefighter was one that was mid-week and raining.

“It’s a really tough issue because there’s such a cultural appetite for fireworks on Halloween,” Gormick said.

Melanie Sutherland, spokeswoman for the B.C.-based Canadian National Fireworks Association, told Postmedia News her organization planned to speak with councillors before Oct. 22.

She said the association was disappointed and surprised by Fry’s motion, adding the association had been working with Vancouver fire services to promote safety and that fireworks-related incidents had gone down since the permitting system was introduced.

Sutherland noted that fireworks were federally approved and could be bought online and delivered to homes, so it was easy to get around a sales ban. She said British Columbians buy about $16 million worth of consumer fireworks each year.

Fry’s motion also asks staff to look at ways to ban the use of fireworks completely in the city. This doesn’t apply to display fireworks used in events like the Celebration of Light. To help argue his point, Fry pointed to the noise and air pollution from fireworks, as well as the impact on animals and people with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In 2016, a dog that had been frightened by fireworks wandered onto a SkyTrain track and was struck and killed.