Oregon fire marshal urges safe, legal fireworks use before July 4

Oregon’s fireworks sales window opened June 23 and runs through July 6, but Union County is entering the holiday under regulated fire season and drought conditions that county officials have already treated as a public-safety problem. The Union County Board of Commissioners put regulated use fire season in place June 3, and county emergency services says the entire county is in drought, with about 50 percent listed as severe drought.

The legal line is narrower than many families assume. Oregon consumer-legal retail fireworks, including fountains, flitter sparklers, ground spinners, novelty devices, wheels and smoke devices, can be used only where local rules allow. Bottle rockets, Roman candles, firecrackers, cherry bombs, M-80s, missiles, rockets, sky lanterns and other fireworks that fly into the air, explode, or travel more than 12 feet horizontally on the ground are illegal without a state permit. Fireworks are also prohibited on beaches, in state parks, at campgrounds and on state or federal forest lands, so a legal purchase in one place can become an illegal use just a few miles away.

Fire officials push the four Bs: be prepared, be safe, be responsible and be aware. In practice, that means keeping a charged hose or bucket of water nearby, keeping children and pets away from fireworks, never relighting a dud, soaking used fireworks in water before disposal and keeping all fireworks away from dry grass or other flammable material. In Union County, where the Fire Defense Board advanced regulated fire season because of increasingly dry conditions, those basic steps matter as much in a driveway as they do on public land.

The penalties are steep enough to matter before the first match is struck. Under Oregon law, illegal fireworks can be seized, and violators can face a Class B misdemeanor, a fine of up to $2,500 per violation and a civil penalty of up to $500. If fireworks used by a minor start a fire, parents can be liable for as much as $5,000 in suppression costs. In a county already fighting drought and dry fuel conditions, one illegal firework can turn into a citation, a bill and a fire call.