Leave the Fireworks to the Pros

The fireworks trade is sizzling and popping in Fillmore, the only Ventura County city where sales and private use of fireworks have not been outlawed.

Selling things that flash and go bang during the week preceding the Fourth of July is a fund-raising tradition in Fillmore, where 25 roadside stands will raise an estimated $250,000 for local nonprofit organizations.

But with smoke still hanging in the air from a fire that burned 400 acres and injured five firefighters in nearby Piru, we again suggest that Fillmore join the majority of Southern California cities and ban fireworks sales.

The Piru fire was not ignited by fireworks but last winter’s Ojai Ranch fire was. That one blackened 4,300 acres of forest land, destroyed one home and several lesser structures and kept an army of 1,600 firefighters on the job over Christmas, running up a bill of more than $5 million. The two teenagers who accidentally touched it off while trying to blow up a neighbor’s mailbox with firecrackers are awaiting criminal sentencing and have already received a bill for nearly $500,000.

And just last week bottle rockets landing on a wood-shake roof ignited a fire that caused $150,000 in damage to an Orange County home and put a firefighter in the hospital with second-degree burns.

We believe setting off fireworks of any kind is best left to trained professionals. There are plenty of public fireworks extravaganzas scheduled this week to honor our nation’s birth enthusiastically--and safely.

Fillmore should join the rest of the county in outlawing sale of these tickets to tragedy. Community service groups, especially those that work with kids, can surely find safer ways to raise money.