Fire Officials Ask Public to Avoid Personal Fireworks

Personal fireworks are illegal in the Silver State, and officials are asking the public to stay away from them, as we get closer to the Fourth of July holiday. Fireworks may be the highlight of Independence Day for many around the Truckee Meadows, but when it comes to lighting the explosives, it is law to leave it to the professionals.

"We have licensed pyrotechnic people that know what they're doing and light them off," Bob King, Fire Marshal for Sparks Fire Department said. "And we have to set up an entire plan to do that as well."

Still, fire departments around the state get calls for illegal fireworks around this time of year. 

"It is illegal," King said. "If they do get caught, they will be fined heavily for it. And especially because it's such a fire risk, right now, in our dry state."   

Triple-digit temperatures and lightning are expected for the next several days, and fireworks is just one more culprit that could ignite a wildfire.  Fireworks burn at a very high temperature. King says a sparkler can burn up to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit.

"We've had sparklers that ended up being thrown into wood shake roofs, starting fires, thrown into bushes or juniper bushes, starting fires," King said. "So, even something as simple as that will start a fire."

While fireworks can spark a fire in an instant, many emergency calls are for injuries. Especially, because some fireworks can have short fuses and explode very quickly.

"We've seen fingers blown off, hands blown off, many different injuries because of the fireworks," King said.

King says Sparks firefighters are educated and trained for what might happen between now and the holiday. He hopes people take his advice and avoid lighting fireworks.

"We're prepared," King said. "We hope we don't have to go on any calls, whatsoever, for fireworks for injuries or fire. We just don't want to see them."

Fireworks can be purchased on some Indian reservations but they have to be ignited in designated areas on tribal land. Taking fireworks off the reservation is illegal.