GILROY
– City firefighters pulled a package of illegal fireworks from a
burning garage on Rosanna Street Tuesday afternoon. With the Fourth
of July approaching, Fire Marshall Jacqueline Bretschneider saw an
opportunity to warn local residents.
GILROY – City firefighters pulled a package of illegal fireworks from a burning garage on Rosanna Street Tuesday afternoon. With the Fourth of July approaching, Fire Marshall Jacqueline Bretschneider saw an opportunity to warn local residents.
“On Tuesday, a fire at a home in Gilroy illustrated the danger that illegal fireworks pose to the community,” city officials said in a prepared release. “While illegal fireworks were not involved in the fire, if they had been it could have been a disaster to the community and life-threatening to firefighters.”
Unlike past years, city police officers and firefighters will strictly enforce fireworks laws this Independence Day. On Wednesday, city officials began what Bretschneider said will be a major publicity campaign to educate people about what fireworks they can use, where they can use them, where they can get them and what penalties they could face for breaking the law.
Fireworks that shoot into the air, move on the ground or explode – such as bottle rockets, Roman candles or cherry bombs – are illegal in California.
Gilroy is the only city in Santa Clara County that doesn’t have a total fireworks ban. Here, city-permitted vendors can sell fireworks the state considers “safe and sane,” such as sparklers, pinwheels and cones, on the days preceding the holiday. Sixteen local non-profit organizations will operate booths this year from July 1 to 4.
“We’re trying to kind of turn on the light bulb and say, ‘Look, if you don’t get it from one of these booths, it’s illegal,’ ” Bretschneider said. “It’s real easy.”
As part of this effort, the city has made an amnesty offer to those who already have illegal pyrotechnics. In the weeks before July 4, people can hand in illegal fireworks at the Gilroy Fire Department with no penalty, fee or citation. They will not get them back, but they will prevent hundreds or thousands of dollars in fines and possible jail time – the legal penalty if they are caught.
Last Fourth of July, the Gilroy Fire Department battled seven vegetation fires and two structure fires, all caused by fireworks, in a seven-hour span. The blazes resulted in $425,000 worth of damage, fire officials estimated.
Bretschneider said she saw a home video in which people shot fireworks over firefighters’ heads, even as they tried to extinguish burning houses.
“It made me really sad to have to see it, and for the firefighters out there, it was probably pretty disgusting,” Bretschneider said.
Many people, including Gilroy City Councilman Bob Dillon, wanted to ban fireworks altogether after this debacle, but the rest of the Council wanted to give city residents another chance. Instead of a ban, then-Fire Chief Jeff Clet drafted a plan to increase police and fire staff roughly threefold on Independence Day.
In past years, according to Bretschneider, “There’s never been any real enforcement other than running around and confiscating things.
“They barely even tracked the number of calls, much less the addresses (at which illegal fireworks were seized).”
To pay for the extra staff, the plan will charge fireworks customers a fee of roughly 8 percent of the purchase price. An $8 box of sparklers will cost an additional 65 cents this year. On a $50 package with fancier pyrotechnic prowess, it would add $4.
“This is sort of an experiment for Gilroy,” Bretschneider said. “Hopefully, we’ll see some improvement with people’s awareness.”
Last year’s problems “showed how available these illegal devices are,” Bretschneider added. “Unfortunately, it is so easy on the Web to get this stuff.”
The most vocal “safe and sane” fireworks supporters were the organizations that rely on selling them every year. The Gilroy High School Cheerleaders Booster Club gets more than half its annual budget from selling fireworks. The Pop Warner youth football and cheerleading league raised nearly a quarter of its 2003 budget from fireworks sales last year.
The city is encouraging anyone who sees illegal fireworks to report them by calling 846-0350.
Peter Crowley covers public safety for The Dispatch. You can reach him at 847-7216 or pc******@gi************.com.
