Our Voice: Does Pasco’s fireworks plan make you nervous? You're not alone

It’s the time of year for the annual debate on fireworks to begin.

Is it our patriotic right to shoot them off for the 4th of July, or are the risks of fire and injury just too great? Should fireworks just be left to the professionals to protect life, limb and property?

Pasco kicked off the season with an unexpected move: removing the ban on the personal use of “safe and sane” fireworks. It had been in effect for 22 years.

Along with revoking the ban, the city also voted to allow fireworks sales in the city. The type of fireworks allowed will be the kind that display on the ground, not aerials.

Many local jurisdictions have bans on fireworks but a few like Richland and West Richland have held out, continuing to allow their residents to set off the noisy and sparkly items synonymous with summer and the 4th of July.

We have a history of encouraging Tri-Citians to forgo setting off fireworks in their driveways and instead enjoy the community displays on the Columbia River and at Gesa Stadium in Pasco. We believe that is the safest way to celebrate, but it is obvious there are many people who want to set off fireworks on their own.

The cities that continue to allow fireworks have their reasons, among them that a ban is unenforceable. From a higher vantage point on a 4th of July evening in Tri-Cities, it’s clear that fireworks are being used in every community, including those that forbid them.

No agency has the manpower needed to run down every report or sighting of fireworks in the concentrated prime-time hours of the 4th of July holiday.

Pasco’s fire chief and police chief support that city’s decision, saying it made no sense to have a law that couldn’t be enforced.

They say the move by the city council will now allow officials to focus on those fireworks that remain illegal, the type that soar in the air and have the greatest risk of causing a fire or injury.

Many of the big, booming displays being shot off in backyards are illegal fireworks purchased on nearby Indian reservations. M-80s, mortars, skyrockets and the like are illegal for personal use in any jurisdiction except a reservation. Of course, those are also the ones that make the most impressive sounds and displays.

Pasco says it will now be able to focus its enforcement efforts on those fireworks that remain illegal and folks who are behaving irresponsibly in their celebrations, while still letting families enjoy a good sparkler, smoke ball or snake.

Fireworks are a quandary, and it will be curious if there is a noticeable change in Pasco in July. We have seen tragedy in this community as a direct result of fireworks, including death and destruction. It’s hard to endorse a plan that may increase the use of items that could cause either.

Pasco’s own police chief expressed concerns last year that even the professional fireworks show in its city posed a risk of fire to the concentration of nearby houses. That concern was addressed by decreasing the size of the mortars used in the display.

With the 4th of July holiday approaching, we will see whether Pasco’s decision was truly a safe and sane decision for the community.

This story was originally published May 29, 2018 at 10:04 AM with the headline "Our Voice: Does Pasco’s fireworks plan make you nervous? You're not alone."