Countywide : Fireworks Flyer Draws Criticism

A campaign mailer that said banning “safe and sane” fireworks leads to the use of illegal firecrackers and bottle rockets drew heat from Orange County Fire Department officials Friday, who said such claims are false.

The flyer, from a group called “Citizens Against Fire Crackers and Bottle Rockets,” was mailed this week to voters in three cities--Costa Mesa, Fullerton and Orange--that have anti-fireworks measures on Tuesday’s ballot.

The Fullerton and Orange measures would ban the sale and possession of all fireworks, while the Costa Mesa measure asks the City Council to do so.

“This is a fairly clever mailer that leaves the impression that banning so-called ‘safe-and-sane’ fireworks leads to an increase in the use of illegal fireworks, but our experience is that is anything but the case,” Fire Department Capt. Dan Young said.

He said the department is concerned about the flyer because it quotes a retired county fire captain, William Crookshanks, as saying “a ban on safe, legal fireworks will result in your city being overrun with dangerous bottle rockets and firecrackers sold by unscrupulous bootleggers.”

“That’s just not true,” Young said.

Dennis Revell, a spokesman for the pro-fireworks group, said state fire marshal studies show that only 9% of fireworks-related accidents involve “safe and sane” fireworks--sparklers, fountains and such--sold in California.

He said that if people can buy these type of fireworks legally, they are less likely to buy bottle rockets and firecrackers, which are illegal statewide.

But Young said that contrary to the statements of Revell and Crookshanks, his department has found that the number of fireworks-related accidents, including those involving firecrackers and bottle rockets, decreases substantially when a city or community prohibits the possession of all fireworks, except those used by professional fireworks shows.

Young said fireworks-related structure damage in the unincorporated areas and 14 cities that the county Fire Department patrols has decreased from $364,000 in 1987 to $756 this year as the last of those communities banned the use of personal fireworks.

Nor were there any fireworks-related injuries in its patrol area this year, Young said, down from nine in 1987.

Besides Costa Mesa, Fullerton and Orange, only three other cities in the county--Buena Park, Garden Grove and Santa Ana--allow the sale of fireworks, Young said.