ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Stanton Alters a Safer and Saner Course

The Stanton City Council was wrong to legalize fireworks sales in the city. Six years ago the city’s voters said in a referendum that they preferred to ban fireworks, and despite numerous discussions of the issue the council respected their wishes--until this month’s reversal.

Three of the council’s five members caved in to the specious arguments of manufacturers of so-called “safe and sane” fireworks, whose gunpowder content and flame-generating capacity are regulated by the state fire marshal. The manufacturers claim that it is illegal fireworks, not their legal products, that damage people and property.

That argument would surprise Anaheim officials. Seven years ago legal fireworks ignited the wood shingles in an apartment complex and caused $2.5 million in damage. After that, the city wisely banned the pyrotechnics.

Stanton now will allow eight nonprofit groups to sell fireworks to raise money. Sales will be limited to July 1-4, and each group must pay up to $1,730 for a permit. The permit fees are intended to provide the city with the estimated $11,000 or more it will have to spend to hire extra firefighters and license the fireworks booths.

But the very fact that extra firefighters will be needed undercuts the argument that the fireworks are safe. Officials from the Orange County Fire Department, which serves Stanton, strenuously argued against legalization and provided what should have been a convincing case. Assistant Fire Marshal Patrick McIntosh produced charts for the council that showed the number of fireworks-related fires dropped by more than 50% in the last 12 years. In that time, fireworks-related injuries fell from 37 to three, he said. It makes no sense to reverse that good trend.

Former Councilman Joe V. Harris was correct last year when he suggested that rather than approve fireworks in the city, officials should lobby the four other cities in Orange County that approve the pyrotechnics to ban them instead. One of the four is Garden Grove, which borders Stanton on three sides. The council members who voted for fireworks said it made little sense to keep the ban if their neighbor did not have one. That logic is faulty and if followed would have all 31 cities in the county allowing fireworks simply because their neighbors did.

The traditional ways nonprofit groups raise cash, such as pancake breakfasts and carwashes, are better. They do not cause injury. Unfortunately, legal fireworks do, and their drawbacks far outweigh the benefits they generate.