Firefighters want their California town to reconsider fireworks sales

Nonprofit groups in Fillmore such as the Rotary Club and Little League benefit from fireworks sales

July 3, 2000
Web posted at: 9:54 p.m. EDT (0154 GMT)

In this story: A matter of survival A hodgepodge of state laws RELATED STORIES, SITES

FILLMORE, California (CNN) -- Firefighters in Fillmore, California, are calling on community leaders to outlaw so-called "safe and sane" fireworks that are sold to raise money for local nonprofit groups, deeming the sparklers, firecrackers and similar devices dangerous.

But various nonprofit groups in Fillmore, as in many communities across the United States, raise about $1 million a year from their annual Independence Day fireworks sales.

"We're a low-income community, and we don't know how we'd survive if we didn't have the income from the fireworks," said Bill Faith, a Fillmore school volunteer.

	VIDEO
CNN's Greg LaMotte looks at the debate between fund-raising and fireworks safety in Fillmore, California Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

But that argument doesn't satisfy Chief Pat Askren of the Fillmore Fire Department.

"Your Rotary Club, your Lions Club, your Railroad Historical Society, your Little Leagues, your youth football ... all of those youngsters make enough money to keep those activities going," said Askren, who suggested that groups dependent on fireworks sales could find an alternative fund-raising plan.

Joe Luna, of the Ventura County (California) Fire Department, said there is no such thing as safe and sane fireworks.

"All fireworks have the potential for personal injury and a cause of fire," Luna said. "Three years ago, up in the foothills of Ventura, there was a 400-acre brush fire caused by so-called safe and sane fireworks."

In 1999, fireworks-related injuries sent about 8,500 people to hospital emergency rooms throughout the United States, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. About 45 percent of the victims were children younger than 15. The number of fireworks-related injuries has decreased by about one-third since 1994, the CPSC said.

"People somehow seem to think that it's their God-given right to set off fireworks," Askren said.

So far, efforts by the department to ban all fireworks sales in Fillmore have been unsuccessful.

California is one of 33 states and the District of Columbia that allow the sale of some or all types of consumer fireworks, according to the CPSC.

Only 10 states have enacted legislation banning all types of fireworks -- including sparklers -- while laws in six states limit fireworks sales to sparklers and "other novelties," the CPSC said.

Only Nevada has no statewide fireworks legislation.

Federal law bans the sale of so-called M-80s or cherry bombs, fireworks defined as containing more than 50 milligrams of explosive powder, according to the CPSC.

Large reloadable shells, aerial bombs and mail-order fireworks construction kits are also federally banned, the CPSC said.

CNN Correspondent Greg LaMotte contributed to this report.

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City of Fillmore, California
Los Padres National Forest
Ventura County Fire Department
National Council on Fireworks Safety
Consumer Products Safety Commission: Fireworks Safety for the Millennium

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