No Fireworks, Please, in This Silent Night Season

During the holiday season, many of us adopt the "festival of lights" approach. We light up our trees indoors and out. We deck the exteriors of our halls with boughs of icicle-lights. We burn scented candles, and oils add to the enticing aromas of goodies baking. Except for maybe the folks who live too close to the house with the extra outdoor circuits and the $10,000 December electrical bill, everybody loves these festive lights.

Then there are the celebrants for whom "light 'em up" means fireworks. They scare Santa away on Christmas Eve, and they wake the early-passed-out drunks on New Year's Eve, forcing them to drive away in search of a quieter place to sleep it off. Yet, back-yard or mid-cul-de-sac fireworks mean empowerment as much as festivity to their proponents.

I don't know why. Maybe they've planned to be so drunk by sundown that they know they won't be able to drive safely to the community's New Year's Eve fireworks display. (I discovered this tradition when I moved to the South 20 years ago, although some of my rural friends up north set off fireworks on their isolated acreage, too. I don't know its cultural origins, but the bonfires and fireworks can be quite lovely along the waterfronts.) Maybe they like the independence of creating their own personal noise, light and mess.

Maybe, where I live in Florida, they enjoy the thrill of tempting fate with these hazardous toys during the winter dry season, as they did during last summer's drought (Dangers of Fireworks on the Fourth). I have no clue.

All I know is that fireworks are illegal in many parts of the U.S. And in just as many parts of the U.S., fireworks-lovers and vendors find a way around those laws, and police turn a blind eye and deaf ear. The Code of Federal Regulations covers fireworks under the Dept of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Title 27, Part 55 (Commerce in Explosives). If you need help falling asleep, you can begin browsing at this Access.GPO.gov page, for documents numbered 55.221-55.224. Florida's "Fireworks and Sparkler Enforcement" brochure seems to be most honored in the breach.

The short story on all these regulations is that fireworks are dangerous and shouldn't be used except by professionals in any case, and then only for agricultural purposes (to scare birds away from your crops, where, if you burn something, it's your own, and you put nobody else at risk) or for public entertainment with very specific clearances from anything flammable, including such pesky suburban items as your neighbor's yard or your own fingers.

I live in the 'burbs. My neighbors commit fireworks crimes several times a year. My pets have stopped hiding under the bed. I have come to grab a glass of wine, myself, wander into the front yard, raise it in a toast to them and wish them a happy holiday, before retiring to my own domestic comforts with plugs in my ears. These are very nice people, and we all socialize in our front yards enjoying a fine evening or sipping that weekend morning cup of coffee, and we help each other out when needed. And fireworks aficionados on my loop sweep up the carcasses of their dead rockets and whatever before they toddle, deafened, off to sleep.

They spend a young fortune on their beloved fireworks displays and, I'm sure, firmly believe they're treating us all to a lovely display. The couples with little kids have persuaded the nearest "display artists" to finish by 10:00 PM on weekends and 9:00 PM on weekdays. "For the children's sake" is a hard argument to defy, but "because it's loud, obnoxious, and you could kill your stupid, drunken self" wouldn't be so well received. So I admit I'm not fighting the fireworks battle down to an absolute ban on the home front.

For the last 20 years, I've thought fireworks was a suburban blight that didn't bother cities, which have tighter regulations and more serious enforcement, or rural areas, where the noise wouldn't bother distant neighbors too much. It turns out, that's not true for rural areas, particularly where horses reside.

First, and least hazardously, fireworks scare horses - a species whose senses must be sharp to detect the faintest noise of any of the other species that prey upon them in the wild. Horses are startled by a twig breaking under a mountain lion's foot, so you can imagine the effect of fireworks. If you're going to argue that (on western ranches where horses are used in herding and at hunt clubs) horses are also trained to be used to gunfire, I'll remind you that those horses know that those loud noises are being made by the trusted human beings on their backs and engaged in the same work they are, not by folks at a distance who may be aiming at them. In any case, horses can get just as systemically sick from stress as we can.

Second, fireworks can start fires in brush or hay in places from which horses cannot escape and too far for the nearest care-taking human being to get to and release them after we realize a fire is burning. Let the horror stories begin.

In 2002, the Grosse Pointe Hunt Club had a barn fire as a result of fireworks. (Read the report here.) The person who threw fireworks into the barn on July 8 was found guilty of one count of arson and 19 counts of malicious destruction of an animal. Nineteen horses died in that fire. The club's night watchman risked his life saving five horses, but got to the barn too late to rescue the rest. Guess he was just disposing of his extras from the Fourth in a way he thought amusing, trying, he said, to "scare the horses." Court TV's report called it a "practical joke gone bad." The perpetrator-a 23-year-old amusing himself after hosting a party at his (absent) parents' home-was found not guilty of arson. This "after" picture of the barn looks like arson to me, but the kid says his only intent was to "scare the horses." His reckless disregard for the fire hazard of which he must have been aware seems to have been attributed to his state of inebriation at the time. Too bad there's no DUI-type crime to convict him of. FFUI (let's pronounce it "FOO-ey") for Flinging Fireworks Under the Influence. The animal cruelty charges on which he was found guilty, however, netted him a sentence of one year in jail and three years of probation, plus paying restitution at the rate of $16 per week. The club, meanwhile, has rebuilt the barn farther back from the road and with stall doors that can be opened from the outside, and replaced the horses, all at the expense of the club members. That young adult will be paying $16/week until he retires, or until he moves somewhere they can't find him.

In Florida, during 2007, the Consumer Fireworks Task Force has energized a grassroots movement to stop fireworks. As long ago as 2003, Pinellas County Commissioner and Task Force member, Kenneth Welch and Pinellas residents convinced county legislators to close the state loophole and truly enforce the state rule that "If it flies or explodes, it's illegal for nonprofessional use in the state of Florida." Welch told a reporter, "This task force has already received letters from around the state about pets being frightened, cars being damaged and it's because of the irresponsible use of fireworks. [Yet] I had one of the fireworks companies' employees come up to me and say I cost them $1-million. I said if you weren't violating the law, it wouldn't cost you $1-million."

The Task Force's public survey results posted on October 23, 2007, (download document here) contain entries such as: "Many fireworks vendors sell professional grade fireworks - former Florida CFO Tom Gallagher defined professional fireworks as "any fireworks that launch or explode." There needs to be a clear delineation of "consumer" fireworks and "professional" fireworks." "Consumers are able to purchase fireworks by "signing here" without much attention given to the actual language that they are agreeing to.

The agricultural use definition is too broad. Clearer criteria are needed. It is too easy for fireworks to end up in the wrong hands (children)." "That the current laws are not clearly enforceable or understandable and without established penalties for violation." "Consumer fireworks can be dangerous and each year cause damage, injury, and even death. Only sparkler type (those that do not explode or fly) should be used by consumers."

Several writers of letters to the Task Force (not published on their website) observed that legislation cannot fully correct a problem that is essentially a human behavior issue, and an educational campaign would likely do as much or more good, along with a clearer and more easily enforceable law. The latest internal activity of the Task Force seems to have lost focus on banning personal-use fireworks (despite the avid insistence of some very vocal members), and become engaged in the distracting political game of defining ways for personal fireworks users to take safety courses and get licenses or permits (a nice tax windfall for the state and counties).

Of the 48 comments made in response to the survey on their website between 11-9-07 and 11-30-07, only 17 opposed fireworks, and the others were for fireworks with some little clarifications of the laws and permits. Since the comments are made anonymously, fireworks manufacturers and retailers themselves could be posting most of these "for" comments, and the Task Force has no way to determine that.

Whatever state you live in, and whatever the "personal fireworks" situation there, it's apparent that the conflict is between the fireworks industry and community safety concerns. The industry uses its deep pockets to lobby the county and state legislatures, and regional task forces operate on a shoestring with web-based surveys whose responses they cannot adequately source for statistical reliability of the results. Personal use of fireworks is hazardous to self and neighbors (of all species), and I believe that people will act ethically and caringly when they have enough information.

So this holiday season, I ask you, for the sake of the children, for the sake of the horses, and for the sake of your friends' fingers, eyes, toes and other necessary parts, please ask them to leave the silent nights silent. Enjoy those twinkling lights in the sky, and be grateful for their beauty and for air clean enough to see them through. Then we can all enjoy the peace and love inherent in all the holidays celebrated during this season.