Aerial fireworks are dangerous in high-desert Idaho. Illegal should mean illegal | Opinion

Sometimes, the Idaho Legislature does the right thing.

Take, for instance, the Fireworks Act of 1997 , which allows non-aerial fireworks, so-called safe and sane fireworks, but bans aerial fireworks.

Why would legislators ban aerial fireworks?

It’s because we live in a dry, high-desert climate, prone to wildfires, and such aerial fireworks pose a giant risk.

To wit:

• In 2016, a man setting off fireworks in the Boise Foothills caused a 2,500-acre wildfire near Table Rock, which destroyed a home.
• Also in 2016, fireworks led to the burning of over 50,000 acres in the Henry’s Creek Fire. Only a change in wind direction saved a subdivision from being destroyed. The person responsible was ordered to pay $1.7 million in restitution.
• A Nampa house fire was caused by Fourth of July fireworks in 2019.
• Just last Friday, a group of teenagers started a 100-acre grass fire near Southeast Boise while setting off illegal fireworks. A 16-year-old was cited for misdemeanor firing timber or prairie land.

The Boise Fire Department responded to 25 fireworks-caused fires on the Fourth of July last year. The Idaho Falls Fire Department responded to 15 fireworks-related blazes .

And yet, Ada County Commissioner Ryan Davidson, for the fourth year in a row, voted against Ada County’s ordinance banning all fireworks in unincorporated areas of the county.

“I don’t believe in banning fireworks, and I generally don’t think the ban accomplishes what it sets out to because fires occur even with the ban, so that’s why, for America, I will vote against this fireworks ban,” Davidson said during a commission meeting on June 11.

Based on that logic — to use the term ultra-loosely — Ada County commissioners should start working to get rid of speed limits, red lights, loitering and noise ordinances, and a slew of other things.

Fortunately, Ada County’s fireworks ordinance did pass, thanks to the votes of Commissioners Tom Dayley and Rod Beck.

“Well, I think it does provide safety for the community,” Dayley said in support of the measure. “Obviously, no matter what law we pass or ordinance we pass, people can violate it and have consequences as a result of the violation.”

For those of you who are planning to set off illegal aerial fireworks July 4, as the Idaho Statesman’s Nicole Blanchard clarified in a story this week , illegal fireworks are — well, illegal.

It’s also, according to the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, illegal to sell those illegal aerial fireworks being sold by the thousands.

That waiver that you sign saying you won’t set off the fireworks in Idaho is just made up, likely for the liability protection of the people selling you the fireworks.

As a wise editorial writer once wrote, that would be like buying marijuana at the corner store in Idaho as long as you signed a piece of paper saying you won’t smoke it in Idaho. Yeah, right.

Illegal means illegal.

And yet, every year, the skies over the Treasure Valley are lit up like hundreds of Christmas trees, sparks raining down with the potential to cause disaster.

It’s mind-boggling when all of Southwest Idaho has so many spectacular and sanctioned — and legal — fireworks shows.

We (sort of) get it that people enjoy aerial fireworks year after year after year, and love setting them off from the comfort and convenience of the public street in front of their house.

If you enjoy it so much, though, go to the Legislature and get the Fireworks Act of 1997 repealed.

Until then, it’s illegal. And fortunately, in unincorporated Ada County, it’s illegal to set off any and all fireworks, because of the inherent risks.

For public safety and preventing devastating fires, abstaining from fireworks — especially aerial ones — is the right thing to do.

It’s also the law.

Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members Greg Lanting, Terri Schorzman and Garry Wenske.