Dig Deeper Texas

Bexar County Burning: Why Weren’t New Year’s Fireworks Banned? | WOAI.COM: San Antonio News

Firefighters got a badly needed rest Wednesday after a fire-filled start to the New Year.

The San Antonio Fire Department alone received nearly 1200 calls between 7 a.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday. Most of those fires were blamed on fireworks.

So, why was there was not a complete fireworks ban in Bexar County?

New Year’s Eve was dry and windy, and fire officials issued a warning to the public.

“Potential to have a large wildland fire based on the winds,” said Bexar County Fire Marshall Orlando Hernandez.

Hernandez’s prediction was close. There were hundreds of fires county- wide. With fireworks the main cause, why weren’t fireworks banned completely?

“State law prohibits you from having a complete ban on fireworks,” explained Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson. “I would like to have that opportunity when it’s dry like it is right now, to ban fireworks altogether.”

The county did ban some types of fireworks.

“We had banned aerial fireworks. But that’s not what was creating a lot of problems,” said Larson.

Never underestimate the stupidity of the people around you. We normally have the most amazing fireworks to watch from our house on New Years Eve. I am not kidding or exaggerating, I grew up near Niagara Falls and have seen them done over the falls to music and the display that happens around my house beats every other display I have ever seen. We don’t do any because I like all my family to keep their digits and why waste my money when the people around me are more than willing to. Watching the news for the last few days before New Years they have stressed how dry it is and that it was really a bad idea to do fireworks except in the safe zones. Now they always push not doing fireworks on your own but this year it was a different type of warning. My husband and I wagered about whether there would be as much as in years past because surely someone listened to the warnings. I thought there would be some diehards that wouldn’t care but I figured for the most part that people around here would either make their way to the safe zones or forgo fireworks this year. I was wrong. At midnight we had the amazing display we have every year and this year we had the added bonus of sirens several times that night because there were several fires started.

I really don’t think it matters whether they banned them or not. Given that this year aerial fireworks were banned and as we sat in front of our house with hose in hand we saw tons of aerial fireworks. As long as the police won’t do their job of driving around the neighborhood handing out citations then there is no way that a ban is of any use. The numbers aren’t in yet for how many tickets were written but last year it was 20 and given that we sat in front of our house for 3 hours new years eve with 3 sets of people just on our street shooting off fireworks and never did a police car pass the house I am not expecting to find they did any more of a job than they did the year before. We did have four fires in the area thanks to fireworks that night and a few injuries but no police presence enforcing the ban.
Technorati Tags: Bexar County, fireworks, Texas

Filed under: 2007, bexar county