Get ready to light up the old red, white and blue. The annual
selling of fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July and help
county nonprofit organizations begins Saturday.
Get ready to light up the old red, white and blue. The annual selling of fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July and help county nonprofit organizations begins Saturday.
“It’s a very big thing around here,” said Hollister City Clerk Geri Johnson, who organized the booth allotments. “It’s been going on for years and years and years, more than 20.”
This year, the city allowed 12 San Benito County nonprofit organizations – including churches, service groups, youth sports and charity agencies – to sell fireworks from Saturday through July 4 in the booths that began showing up in parking lots last week.
The number of stands allotted each year depends on population. This year, city officials allowed one booth per 3,500 Hollister residents. In 2002, the city allowed one booths per 3,000 residents, according to Johnson.
“We increased it because we don’t have enough room for more booths,” she said.
Each of the nonprofit organizations operating a stand must purchase the fireworks from the same company – American Promotional Events, Inc., and all the fireworks are of the Safe and Sane variety, the only classification that is legal in Hollister. No fireworks of any kind are allowed in county limits.
The nonprofit organizations pay the city $500 to support Hollister’s July 4 fireworks show at Marguerite Maze Middle School and $200 for services to the Hollister Fire Department so that Marshal Mike O’Connor can inspect the booths.
O’Connor said there are no limits for the number of fireworks each booth can store. However, when an organization transports fireworks, it can store only up to 1,000 pounds of gun powder per load – a regulation of the California Department of Transportation.
He also said the booths must be located within 100 feet of a fire hydrant and more than 50 feet from any structure.
Safe and Sane
As long as the nonprofits organizations sell Safe and Sane fireworks, O’Connor said, “They (residents) can buy the whole booth if they want.”
However, anything fireworks that explode or leave the ground is illegal, he said. Fireworks also must have the official Safe and Sane emblem on the package to be legal.
Varieties of the legal fireworks include fountains, hand-held, spinners and others, according to the California Department of Forestry.
Fire officials will patrol the city July 3-5 enforcing the use of illegal fireworks, as well as improper use of the Safe and Sane variety.
“People often misuse Safe and Sane (fireworks), and throw smoke bombs,” he said.
Illegal fireworks use can carry fines of up to $5,000 and one year in jail, he said. And illegal sales of fireworks carry much stiffer penalties. O’Connor said merchants often illegally sell fireworks out of garages and the last person cited served four years in jail.
Johnson also urged residents against illegally blocking streets for fireworks displays.
“Because it’s a hazard and they’re endangering their own lives, and the lives of their children,” she said.
O’Connor also provided a few safety tips. Children should be supervised by an adult, people should have a hose or bucket of water handy to extinguish used fireworks and people should never attempt to re-light duds.
He said there has never been a confirmed report of a fire caused by Safe and Sane fireworks, though the Hollister Fire Department has responded to fires caused by illegal fireworks, such as bottle rockets.
“I urge people not to use illegal fireworks,” Johnson said.
