Sparks Fly Over County Policy for Fireworks : Regulations: Size limits will diminish the zing of the explosions, organizers say.

Aerial fireworks extravaganzas this Fourth of July will be less spectacular in many Orange County communities because of a new County Fire Department safety policy limiting the size and height of the colorful explosions.

The regulation, which is being enforced for the first time, requires that the safety buffer around a launch spot be expanded depending on the size of the shells shot off. The rule puts a crimp on areas hemmed in by houses or terrain that could prove to be kindling for a fire.

County Fire Marshal Sam Husoe said the regulation was prompted by citizen complaints about burning fallout from fireworks. Last July 4, department investigators traced the cause of a $40,000 house fire in Cypress to a pyrotechnic display at the nearby Los Alamitos Racetrack. A smaller roof fire in Lake Forest was linked to fallout from a fireworks show at the community lake.

Most fireworks organizers are striving to comply with the county regulation. However, there is concern that some of the displays may prove so disappointing the public will not return next year and instead may revert to buying more dangerous back-yard-variety fireworks, which are illegal in most of the county.

Sponsors of some shows were upset by the new regulation.

“What the Orange County Fire Department has done is develop a standard that is stricter than any other in the state,” said Pat Rodgers, president of the Irvine Police Assn., which sponsors the city’s largest fireworks display. The association may cancel the event rather than comply with the new rules, Rodgers said.

Residents in the gated Emerald Bay community near Laguna Beach have been warned that for the first time in 30 or more years they might not be treated to a private fireworks display. On Friday, Emerald Bay Homeowner Assn. officials were scrambling to arrange for an offshore barge as a launch pad after learning that the new regulations would permit them only a paltry display if the shells were fired off the beach.

In Placentia, officials are holding their breath wondering if the custom-designed fireworks from China, which are half the size of the ones they used last year, will prove to be crowd pleasers.

Sharing their worry are the owners of Pyro Spectaculars, a Rialto firm that puts together fireworks displays for 15 organizations in Orange County. Ten of those have had to be scaled down under the new regulation.

“If we can’t knock their socks off as we have in the past, they will probably cancel the show forever,” Pyro Spectaculars manager Kevin Kelley said, adding that the regulation diminishes “the oooh and ahhh factor.”

The size of the explosive shell translates into the height and spread of the fiery spangles in the sky. Under the new rules, the safety zone around a launch spot must be 100 feet on all sides for each inch in diameter of the largest shell that is exploded.

“We will do our best to make the shows spectacular, but we will not be able to replace the giant chrysanthemums,” said Pyro Spectaculars President Jim Souza, referring to the colorful explosions yielded by large shells that are six to eight inches in diameter. Those aerial fireworks have been scratched this year from the programs in a number of Orange County communities.

Husoe, the county fire marshal, stressed that the Fire Department has a vested interest in boosting the popularity of public fireworks displays. “We want people to go to public displays,” he said. “We feel this is the best way to celebrate the Fourth of July, rather than having children and adults on the street with fireworks.”

Since 1988, the sale of so-called “safe and sane” fireworks at roadside booths has been outlawed in unincorporated portions of Orange County and the 16 cities that contract for service with the Orange County Fire Department. Only four cities--Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove and Santa Ana--still allow the use of safe-and-sane fireworks.

Husoe said statewide regulations for public fireworks displays needed to be tailored to Orange County’s conditions, including the prevalence of dry brush and high-density residential developments with fire-prone shake shingle roofs.

He also predicted the new safety rule will not take the zing out of the Fourth of July, noting that seven of the 17 public displays under the County Fire Department’s purview will not have to use smaller explosives.

For instance, eight-inch shells will still be exploded this year in a vacant lot in the Irvine community of Woodbridge Village and off a barge in Dana Point, while six-inch shells will still be launched at Marco F. Forster Junior High School in San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Niguel Regional Park and Rancho Santa Margarita.