New County Regs on Fireworks
Three changes will go into effect next year
This year the Council has approved some significant changes to the use of fireworks in unincorporated parts of Pierce County. State law requires passage a full year before the new rules may take effect, so this will be the last 4th of July celebration under the old rules.
Time and Dates Approved for Sale and Discharge of Fireworks
Although the Council did act this year to further limit the discharge of fireworks, the TNT rightfully took the Council to task in an editorial today for failing to go further.
Councilmembers Ladenburg, Talbert, and I supported limiting fireworks to July 4th only. In our view, the weeklong private shows have not only become an enormous imposition on neighbors and first responders, but diminished the specialness of the day itself.
When you look at the regulations for each jurisdiction in the area, you can see how much of an outlier Pierce County is. I should note that the City of Gig Harbor Council has typically felt that restrictions in the City wouldn’t be very effective if they were different than the far larger, surrounding unincorporated areas governed by Pierce County.
After passage of Proposal 2016–39s, new rules for sales and discharge will be:
- Sales permitted June 28th-July 4th.
- Discharge permitted July 1st-3rd 10am-11pm; July 4th 10am-12am; and between 10am and 11pm on July 5 of any year in which July 4 falls on a Sunday.
Civil Penalty
The Council had more consensus on Proposal 2017–15, imposing a civil penalty of up to $1230 for illegal discharge of fireworks. It’s currently a criminal penalty only.
The new civil penalty is easier to enforce because it requires a lower burden of proof. To impose a criminal penalty, law enforcement must basically catch you in the act.
It’s important to keep in mind that the week of the 4th of July is the busiest all year for all first responders. The night of the 4th is their busiest day. It’s literally all hands on deck that evening. Even the Sheriff himself is on duty, which he often likes to joke about.
Simply put, they are so busy that calls are triaged and obviously they have to prioritize the most serious crimes. Stopping to investigate a misdemeanor doesn’t make much sense when you need to get to violent assaults. But following up with a civil penalty after the fact might.
Additionally, the penalty could help pay for additional enforcement.
Emergency Ban
During the 2015 drought we experienced extreme fire conditions that typically aren’t found on the west side of the mountains. Put simply, there were no safe and sane fireworks that year. They were all a risk of starting large fires.
To put it in context, we had evacuations on the east side of the County and our Emergency Management Department was using the phrase “Urban Interface Wildfire.”
Unlike many counties, the Council had not granted the Fire Marshall the power to institute an emergency ban so there wasn’t much he could do. Originally an ordinance I had written set out to do just that but it quickly became clear others on the Council would prefer that the Council alone retain that authority.
After doing some research it turns out we can use existing emergency authority granted by the County Charter. We passed new amendments to instruct the Fire Marshall to report to the Council when certain scientifically objective criteria are met that indicate extreme fire conditions exist. At that point the Council can vote for an emergency, temporary ban on the discharge of fireworks.
Proposed 2017–14s2 is schedule for a final vote on July 25th.
