In Florida, Drought Raises Dangers of Fireworks on Fourth

The Fourth of July in central Florida is hot-hot-hot. This year's drought continues through what should be the rainy season, making many standard home-based holiday events hazardous. Florida prohibits the retail sale of most fireworks to consumers.

The Florida department of Financial Services, Division of the Fire Marshall, publishes a "Fireworks and Sparkler Enforcement" guide that specifies state-wide permissions and prohibitions for different types of boom-pow and crackle-crackle-crackle devices. It contains a link to the list of approved fireworks and provides pictures of prohibited ones. The Penalties section is illustrated with a set of handcuffs (assuming they catch you before you blow your hands off with a prohibited device gone terribly wrong). The related statutes describe fines that you'll need those hands to write a check to pay for - on top of any property damage your incendiary devices cause to neighbors' property, not to mention your own.

One loophole through which forbidden fireworks can be purchased is for " agricultural purposes" of deterring harmful birds from crops. Many roadside purveyors of the forbidden devices make you sign a statement that you're using them for this agricultural purpose. Don't be fooled. That statement protects them, not you. They'll swear you lied to them, and they'll win. You set those fireworks off in your backyard or in the street at 10:00 PM, and your neighbor who has to get up Thursday morning at 5:00 AM to go to work will call the police on you in a heartbeat.

Additional restrictions vary by county and may affect public parks and beaches as well as your back yard. These vary from year to year and from season to season (4^th of July vs New Year). Fireworks are typically prohibited by counties during droughts, except for officially permitted public displays whose safety precautions are examined by local fire authorities before the show starts. Some municipalities within counties that allow fireworks may enforce their own restrictions within their geographic boundaries.