Brea : Fireworks Ban Wins Tentative Approval

The City Council has given tentative approval to an ordinance that would ban the sale and use of fireworks in the city.

The city now permits fireworks to be sold and used between June 28 and July 4 every year.

The council had voted 3 to 2 in December to ask city staff to draw up the ordinance.

Mayor Clarice Blamer was one of three council members to ask for the ordinance, citing the results of a Nov. 5 election in which a majority of those who voted said they favor a ban.

Blamer, who voted for the ban last Tuesday, said she cannot see the city allowing the use of fireworks for seven days every year while the city spends about $2 million on fire suppression and prevention annually. She said fireworks are a fire hazard.

Councilman Gene Leyton, one of two of the five council members voting against the ban, called it “unenforceable.”

“I didn’t feel that we had a real cause to ban fireworks,” Leyton said. “I did not think that the 18% of the people of the city who voted in that election was a mandate.”

During the Nov. 5 election, 1,732 voters favored a city fireworks ban while 1,432 opposed one. Brea has 17,926 registered voters, according to the city clerk’s office.