Fillmore embraces fireworks stands

A fireworks stand in Fillmore, California

By David Montero

July 4, 2000 Web posted at: 4:09 PM EDT (2009 GMT)

FILLMORE, California (The Ventura County Star) -- Don Gunderson has seen the damage fireworks can do, having worked with explosives in the Navy for more than 20 years.

In fact, he remembers seeing the aftermath of a warehouse in Saugus, Mass., that blew up after some stored explosives ignited -- and the image still haunts him.

"There was plywood and galvanized steel buried in the hillside," he said. "It was smoky and it was charred. It made me realize how dangerous they were."

But the Fillmore councilman also said he will never vote to make fireworks illegal in his town. Not now. Not ever.

And it's not because the city makes one percent sales tax on all sales of fireworks -- each booth sells between $20,000 and $50,000.

It's also not because they are the safe-and-sane variety --although both are good reasons to continue the sale of fireworks, he said.

No, the reason to continue is because there are Fillmore High School students who get scholarships and indigenous Indians in Mexico who get much-needed medicine from money raised from firework sales by the Fillmore Rotary Club. There are softball teams and bands that get expensive equipment they might not otherwise be able to afford.

"This benefits a lot of people," he said. "And there is nothing that can raise as much money as firework sales."

But if fireworks stands are the Christmas in July for Fillmore organizations, they are the curse of the fire season for county fire departments.

While acknowledging that fireworks sold in Fillmore are "perfectly legal," Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Joe Luna said it is expensive for his units to put out fires that flare up --sometimes caused by the so-called safe-and-sane fireworks.

In 1996, a 400-acre brushfire occurred near Fillmore because a couple of teen-agers lighted legal fireworks near dry tinder. Luna said that after the fire was doused, the department stuck the parents of the two children with the bill -- $211,000.

"That's a lot of money to shell out," he said.

But for Fillmore's nonprofits, fireworks mean money.

For most of the 25 stands in Fillmore, fireworks sales account for anywhere between 80 percent and 90 percent of their total revenue raised for the year.

The Rotary Club makes about $40,000 from fireworks sales alone and cobbles together the rest of its contributions from yard sales and checks donated by members. That $40,000, Gunderson said, helps pay for five $500 scholarships for Fillmore High School students and nearly $3,000 in medicine for the poorest economic group in Mexico -- indigenous Indians.

For the Christian Praise Assembly Church, fireworks sold mean vans to take youths to the beach and roof repairs on its small building on Main Street.

Youth Minister Mark Garcia said the church "would be struggling" without the annual boon that comes from July Fourth fireworks sales.

"There's no way we could get a van or even take the kids on some retreats without this," he said.

For 10 years, the church has had the prime location for selling fireworks -- the first stand seen going east on Highway 126. After its booth, however, scattered amid a gauntlet of fast food restaurants, gas stations and car dealerships, the banners proclaim the beneficiaries of fireworks sales: local softball teams, high school bands and the Fillmore Volunteer Search and Rescue.

But fire officials say the risks of fireworks don't justify their sales. After all, they say, other nonprofit groups in other cities get by without fireworks sales.

"We're not trying to be 'The Grinch Who Stole the Fourth of July,' " Luna said. "But why can't they have pancake breakfasts or something?"

But, he said, the city seems to be willing to take the risk, even though Luna wishes it wouldn't.

Councilwoman Linda Brewster said Fillmore is unlikely to change its stance.

"We've had a (renegade) image for a long time," she said. "But it doesn't bother us. The last time this issue came up for a vote, it passed 5-0. I don't see anything changing."

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