Fireworks are for sale in the Park City area despite woods that are primed to burn.
Parkites may not purchase or launch aerial fireworks, which are prohibited by state law. But the ones sold in Utah can travel about 10 feet in any direction when lit.
In the past, elected officials in Summit County have banned the sale of even those fireworks that are legal in the state.
“We haven’t had any recommendation this year from our fire warden or sheriff that they would like to see us do something,” Summit County Councilwoman Sally Elliott said. “Without a recommendation, I kind of doubt, that we would do any sweeping sort of change.”
The County Council has not discussed a ban this year, she said.
“With all the rain we’ve had the fuels will be growing, but I doubt that we will [ban fireworks] this year,” Elliott said.
Light snakes in the gutter; let kids hold sparklers; but remember that bringing more spectacular Roman candles, bottle rockets and lady fingers into Utah from neighboring Wyoming is a crime, Summit County Fire Warden Bryce Boyer said.
“It’s not so much that we go and confiscate them,” Boyer said. “We typically see the ones that are 20, 30 or 40 feet in the air. So we just kind of watch that area and wait for the smoke to start.”
State law allows stores to sell safer class C fireworks for three days before and after New Year’s Day, Chinese New Year, July 4 and July 24.
Boyer says about a third of the calls he receives each summer are fireworks related.
“With this hot weather, there are a lot of dead grasses underneath the green that can ignite,” Boyer said. “And even a green field will burn.”
Despite lower wildfire danger than in the past, the conditions on some hillsides are volatile, he said.
“Grasses that you are seeing that are brown, they’re ready to go,” Boyer said. “Regardless of how hot it is, they reach the first or middle part of June and they die off and dry out anyway.”
Often illegal fireworks start brush fires, he said.
“Typically, this is the week when people start doing it,” Boyer said.
Meanwhile, there is time for officials to still ban fireworks July 24, which marks the celebration of Pioneer Day in Utah.
“People need to be cautious and aware that they can still start fires,” Boyer said.