Patrols Will Cite Anyone Having Illegal Blast on 4th

Firecrackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, cherry bombs and M-80s aren’t simply child’s play to fire officials. With the Fourth of July holiday just a day away, they are readying to wage war against the popular explosives that are illegal throughout San Diego County.

Twenty members of a special fireworks task force will spend much of the Fourth on the streets, confiscating illegal explosives and issuing citations to those who insist on igniting traditional Independence Day devices, including seemingly harmless sparklers.

“We’re not trying to take the fun out of the Fourth of July, but we’re putting safety into it,” said Capt. Al MacDonald, San Diego Fire Department spokesman. He said sparklers, probably one of the most popular fireworks, can reach a blistering 1,650 degrees and cause third-degree burns.

Fire authorities said San Diego residents should take advantage of licensed public fireworks displays that will light the Fourth of July night countywide.

Fireworks have become a year-round problem for customs inspectors at the border. Tourists often try to smuggle illegal fireworks into San Diego County from Tijuana and other border towns, officials said. As Independence Day nears, inspectors have seen seen the amount of confiscated fireworks go sky-high, senior inspector Bobbie Cassidy said Monday, although seizures are down from past years.

People don’t realize that they are breaking federal law when they try to bring fireworks into the country from Mexico, she said. In addition, San Diego County and every city within the county have laws prohibiting possession of fireworks without permits.

Border Patrol agents have confiscated 250 pounds of illegal fireworks since Wednesday at the San Ysidro entry port, Cassidy said. Most of the popular items are made in Mexico or imported from China and are sold on the streets, in stores and in open-air markets in border towns like Tijuana, she said.

“The problem is that these are particularly dangerous because of manufacturing flaws like irregular fuses and powders,” Cassidy said. “There’s no quality control.”

She said people will go to great lengths to smuggle pyrotechnic materials over the border. “They conceal the fireworks the same way they would conceal drugs--under car seats, hoods, taped to the body,” Cassidy said.

Fines equal to the domestic value of the fireworks are assessed when the contraband is found, she said. Vehicles may be seized to guarantee payment of the penalties. Arrest and prosecution are also possible, but no arrests have been made so far this year, she said. The largest stash of illegal fireworks found by inspectors this year was valued at $500.

The confiscated fireworks are being held in a special bunker at the secondary inspection lot at San Ysidro until the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department bomb and arson unit can dispose of them, Cassidy said.

Sgt. Conrad Grayson of the Sheriff’s Department said the unit usually disposes of 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of fireworks each year, most of it coming in around the July 4 holiday.

He said Mexican fireworks, which are usually wrapped in reddish paper, are the most dangerous pyrotechnics because inconsistent chemical compositions make them unpredictable.

All fireworks are illegal in San Diego, even the so-called “safe and sane” fireworks that are legal in other parts of California, including Orange and Imperial counties. But most authorities say “safe and sane” fireworks, which include sparklers, fountains and other devices that do not explode or become airborne, are a misnomer. “With these ‘safe and sane’ fireworks, the cost is not that much, but the repercussions of possible fires caused by them or physical damage to somebody just don’t make them worth it,” MacDonald said.

MacDonald said 10 two-person teams of one firefighter and one police officer will patrol the city on Independence Day. Last year, a minimal number of citations were issued, and only about 150 pounds of fireworks were confiscated, he said. In 1984, the first year the task force patrolled, more than 100 citations were issued and about 400 pounds were confiscated.

MacDonald said that in recent years fireworks have sparked many grass fires throughout the county. The possibilities of such fires are greater this year because of the extremely dry weather lately, fire authorities said. Last July 4, 22 fireworks-related blazes were reported in the city. No injuries were reported, and the dollar loss was $610. The previous year, 19 fires were reported, with one causing $4,000 in to a structure, MacDonald said.

Police spokesman Bill Robinson said officers respond to reports of fireworks, usually at beaches, parks, residences and parking lots. He said the maximum penalty for setting off fireworks is six months in jail and a fine of several hundred dollars.

“We’ll have too many calls to respond to,” Robinson said, “but we remind the public that we will confiscate. We recommend people to go to the public fireworks displays.”

Elizabeth Day, program director at the Burn Institute at UC San Diego, said the California state fire marshal reported 302 fireworks-related injuries last July 4 in the state. She said 66% of the injuries are to children and young adults. Most are caused by the more popular and common devices: sparklers and firecrackers.

She said 72% of all injuries are burns to the head, face, eyes, hands and fingers.