Every year since 1993, when she returned from the Fort Vancouver fireworks show to find her front yard ablaze from a neighbor’s stray firework, Alice Olsen has spent the Fourth of July soaking down her northeast Vancouver property.
“Then I stand in my yard with my hose at the ready,” said Olsen, a retired teacher who has seen her squash patch, a hedge and a bag of garden manure catch fire over the years. “It’s not a fun time for me.”
Given this year’s drought and hot, parched weather conditions, Olsen and dozens of other local residents concerned about fire risk have been asking authorities to ban fireworks this season. They’ve called the city and county fire marshals. They’ve called the city and Clark County councils. They’ve even called Gov. Jay Inslee’s office.
But no ban will be forthcoming in Clark County or Vancouver. Even if local officials wished, there’s no law currently on the books allowing them to do so.
Unless a local government already has an ordinance in place allowing it to declare a state of emergency and ban fireworks under certain conditions, there’s nothing to be done to stop private festivities. By state statute, changes to fireworks laws take one year to go into effect, and so even an ordinance adopted today wouldn’t be applicable until next July 1. Vancouver city officials said this week they thought the governor had the power to declare an emergency fireworks ban — but that’s not the case, said Jaime Smith, a spokeswoman for Inslee.
“The governor had our legal counsel look into it,” she said Monday. “They determined he doesn’t have the authority to do that under these conditions.”
Monday, as fires raged through nearby Wenatchee, burning two dozen homes to the ground, Douglas County Fire Marshal Brian Brett declared a ban on fireworks. The county code giving him the authority to do so was already in place, but this was the first time it had been enacted, he said.
“We’ve depleted all our resources. The whole state’s here,” Brett said Monday. “So the conditions aren’t conducive to throwing more fire on the ground.”
Public interest
Clark County councilors discussed a fireworks ban in June, but took no action. “Surely this isn’t the first dry year we’ve had,” Councilor Tom Mielke said. “I’d hate to make a policy on a single dry year.”
Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt, who has received “a whole bunch” of emails and phone calls requesting a ban on fireworks, said Monday he’d support an ordinance giving local leadership the flexibility to do so.
But until that happens, the only thing local officials can do is urge the public not to use personal fireworks this week. Vancouver Fire Marshal Heidi Scarpelli has made the plea repeatedly, but fireworks are flying off the shelves anyway.
Tuesday, Clark County Fire Marshal Jon Dunaway issued a press release advising people who want to use fireworks to buy devices that won’t travel from the launch area, which should be free of trees, tall grasses, shrubs, grasses and buildings. He recommended steering away from helicopters, aerial spinners and parachute devices, which travel in the wind, and Jumping Jacks, which bounce on the ground.
Also Tuesday, Vancouver Public Schools announced that due to the increased fire risk, fireworks won’t be allowed on school property this summer, and that increased security patrols will monitor activity.
La Center resident Krissy King, 57, is among those who contacted the fire marshal and governor to request a fireworks ban. Her neighbors are heavy fireworks users, prompting her to mow her 5-acre property “as much as I can mow” and get hoses ready.
“You either love fireworks or you hate them,” King said Monday. “I’m a horse owner, so I hate them. I hate the idea that anybody could lose property or a life due to fireworks.”
People in her area continue setting off fireworks for weeks after July 4, she said. Last year, the fireworks noise was so incessant that her Arabian horse, Easter, had a seizure from over-stimulation, King said.
“It would be nice if everybody followed the rules, but the plain and simple fact is, they don’t,” King said.
Olsen said the fire marshal visited her property once and informed her that if her large pine trees catch on fire, her house would burn, too. The thought terrifies her so much that she often cries as she waters down her property on July 4, she said.
“I do have responsible neighbors. It’s not like I have a bunch of wild, weird people (nearby),” she said. “They’re just normal folks shooting off fireworks. But even responsible people can have fireworks go astray.”
