2,800 pounds of illegal fireworks confiscated since late May by Costa Mesa police

Costa Mesa police have confiscated around 2,800 pounds of illegal fireworks in the weeks leading up to the Fourth of July holiday, department officials said Tuesday.

Most of those were seized in just two operations, Costa Mesa Police Department spokeswoman Roxi Fyad said. The first happened on May 25 and led to the citation of one person in possession of 475 pounds of fireworks.

The second happened on June 8. A special investigation unit monitoring online ads for illegal fireworks traced them to two people who were arrested in Santa Ana, Fyad said. More than 2,300 pounds of explosives bundled on four pallets were found, and an Orange County Bomb Squad had to be summoned before those could be collected.

“Illegal fireworks are an issue for many communities, not just Costa Mesa,” Police Chief Ron Lawrence said. “It’s a common concern that we take to heart and act on every year to serve our community. Illegal fireworks are loud, dangerous and can be lethal, and the use of illegal fireworks during the Fourth of July week makes this one of the busiest holiday seasons for the police department.”

The holiday is also associated with an uptick in burns and other injuries, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. About 11,500 fireworks-related trips to the emergency room were made in America in 2021, around 8,500 between June 18 and July 18.

“I’m a hand specialist and surgeon, and I would never touch a firework because a person’s hands are just too important to endanger,” Dr. Joanne Zhang with the Hoag Orthopedic Institute in Irvine said. “All fireworks carry the potential risk of serious injury or permanent disability from severe burns, high energy blast injuries or even an amputation.”