In a surprising announcement, the Bureau of Land Management is proposing to ban all fireworks on the 8.3 million acres of land it manages in Colorado. The surprising part is that they have been allowing fireworks at all. Current BLM rules in the state only prohibit fireworks in developed campgrounds and on a seasonal basis when there is high fire danger.

If the new policy is adopted, it will bring the BLM rules in line with other land management agencies in the state.

The public can comment on the proposal until August 9. Wildfire Today’s comment: yes, ban fireworks. Geeze. You had to ask?

Florida used to be the state that produced weird news, but recently it has been Arizona that has been capturing the headlines. Governor Jan Brewer recently signed into law dozens of bills, one of which allows the sale of certain kinds of fireworks, including ground and hand-held devices such as sparklers, spinning wheels, and smoke devices. The law bans fireworks intended to rise above the ground, such as bottle rockets or roman candles. It allows cities to ban the use of fireworks within their boundaries. Bobby Ruiz, an Assistant Chief for the Phoenix Fire Department said, “Now, we’re going to have more kids with matches and playing with fireworks that put out a lot of sparks and easily ignite dry vegetation.”

Another law signed by the governor bans the use of human embryos for creating “human-animal hybrids”.  Whew. I’m glad she took care of that issue.

An article at ArrowLakesNews.com covers the effort to ban all fireworks in British Columbia:

The Fire Chiefs’ Association of British Columbia (FCABC) is trying to ban fireworks permanently throughout the province, and after much debate, the Nakusp council will not be sending a letter of support.

Bruce Mabin, zone four director of the FCABC, wrote that a bylaw should be drafted in each area around the Kootenays banning the sale and distribution entirely.

“It is our belief that the annual increased level for wildland fires each year in our areas makes the use of consumer fireworks a constant threat for instigation of a wildfire,” he wrote.

Nakusp fire chief Terry Warren said it’s just not worth it, because in his opinion the risk isn’t worth the reward.

“They’re just too dangerous,” he said. “The biggest issue is in the fire-ban season, when people from other provinces see these fireworks for sale and start setting them off. It’s a problem throughout the province.”

According to the FCABC, 8,000 children are injured and 20 people die each year in North America from improper fireworks use.

Roughly 120 amputations occur annually to the hands and fingers.

The rest of the article is here.

Wildfire Today has written about the fireworks problem many times.

Last Sunday, November 15, the New England Patriots were playing the Colts at Indianapolis when after a touchdown, the staff of the new 60,000-seat Lucus Oil Stadium set off fireworks inside the facility. And, as frequently happens with fireworks everywhere, they started several small fires in the artificial turf on the field.

An alert Colts staffer put out one of the fires with Gatorade and his sneaker-clad foot.

This is just another example of why fireworks are unsafe, and INDOOR FIREWORKS are insane.

(Note: this is a re-post of an article we originally posted on November 15, but got lost during the recent transitions here at Wildfire Today.)

A college student has been ordered to pay restitution of $27,000 for tossing a firecracker in the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, starting a wildfire which burned 70 acres. The U. S. Forest Services said Jonathon Meyer was camping with friends in the Daniel Boone National Forest when he started the fire with fireworks, then fled without warning other campers or reporting the fire.

Eight others, after agreeing to plea bargins, will pay $6,700 each.