Fireworks Will Stay Legal in Fullerton, Council Says

Piccolo Petes can shriek and cones can sparkle on the next Fourth of July in Fullerton.

The City Council voted, 3 to 2, this week to keep fireworks legal, rejecting a Fire Department recommendation to ban their private use.

“I don’t really see that there’s an overwhelming community spirit to ban fireworks,” Councilman Chris Norby said. “I don’t favor prohibiting them tonight or in the immediate future.”

Three residents asked the council Tuesday to ban fireworks, while seven residents or members of Fullerton fund-raising groups asked council members to keep them legal.

Councilmen Richard C. Ackerman and A.B. (Buck) Catlin joined Norby in voting to keep fireworks legal, although Catlin said he would like the issue placed on the ballot to let Fullerton voters decide.

Banning fireworks is an issue of safety, Mayor Molly McClanahan said.

“This is not an issue of patriotism,” she said.

McClanahan and Councilman Don Bankhead said they would like to outlaw so-called safe and sane fireworks in Fullerton because they create a fire and safety danger to residents. “Safe and sane” is a designation given by the state fire marshal to relatively safe fireworks that don’t explode or fly through the air.

Although Fullerton was fortunate this year to have only about $700 in damage caused by fireworks, McClanahan said, there have been several close calls, meaning fires were doused quickly before spreading.

“I think we were lucky,” she said.

Fire Chief Ron Coleman asked the council to ban fireworks not only because of the risks of fires and injuries, but also because residents from surrounding cities that ban fireworks have been flowing into Fullerton to shoot them off.

With so many people coming to Fullerton to use fireworks in parks, schools and on public streets, the risk has increased, he said.

Fullerton housewife Jean Henderson, 33, told the council that if Fullerton bans them, it will force her family to drive to another city on July 4.

“I have small children, and we love our little home display,” she said.

In the past few years, all but six of the county’s 28 cities have outlawed “safe and sane” fireworks. Fireworks also are illegal in unincorporated county territory.

Besides Fullerton, fireworks are legal in Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Orange and Santa Ana. On Tuesday, the Garden Grove City Council will consider a city commission’s recommendation to ban fireworks.

Besides the Fire Department’s request for the ban, two reports issued by Orange County grand juries have encouraged Fullerton to outlaw them. The council agreed to look at the issue again if there are more problems with injuries or fires from fireworks.

Council members also voted unanimously to look into holding a public fireworks display next July to give residents an alternative to buying and shooting off their own fireworks.