New Year's fireworks OK in Palmer

The City Council recently unanimously agreed to allow residents to set off fireworks between 6 p.m. Dec. 31 and 1 a.m. Jan 1.

City Councilman Richard Best sponsored the ordinance. He said he grew up in an area where setting fireworks off on New Year's Eve was legal. And legal or not, for a lot of families it's a tradition, he said.

"Each year at New Year's, you hear a bunch of people out there popping off fireworks. On one hand you don't want them to be breaking laws but on the other hand, celebrating New Year's is kind of an auspicious moment," he said. "A little leniency is appropriate."

Best said the new city rule is modeled after Wasilla's fireworks regulations. That city's council changed its law in 2007 to allow New Year's Eve fireworks for similar reasons -- Councilman Kristofer Larson, at the time, said the ban was turning otherwise law-abiding citizens into lawbreakers.

Central Mat-Su Deputy Fire Chief Michael Keenan said the new rule in Wasilla hasn't led to a rash of injuries.

In 2008, responders were called to one home where a man had a fireworks-related injury. That injury wasn't related to the new law, however, because the man lived outside Wasilla, where setting fireworks off remains illegal. It's now legal to set off fireworks only on private property within the city limits of Wasilla, Palmer and Houston.

Keenan said he heard plenty of fireworks being set off in Wasilla as people rang in 2009, but emergency responders weren't called out.

Kerry Aguirre, spokeswoman for Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, said critical-care nurses who have worked at the hospital for several years reported seeing few fireworks-related injuries. The ones they do see are typically burns, "from holding on to a sparkler for too long or not letting go of a firecracker," she said. None of the nurses could recall seeing more serious injuries such as blindness or loss of fingers.

A firework fact sheet at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site reports that most fireworks-related injuries in America happen between June 16 and July 16.

In 2006, the most recent date included in the fact sheet, 2,300 people injured their hands, 1,500 people injured their eyes and 1,400 people injured their head, face or ear during that one-month period. More than half the injuries were burns.

Firecrackers were associated with most of those injuries, followed by sparklers and rockets, according to the fact sheet.

Palmer is a little more cramped than Wasilla, where many homeowners have half-acre lots or larger, with spruce and birch trees that buffer sound. In Palmer, lots are typically a quarter-acre or smaller. Evergreen trees are rare and fewer cottonwood and birch trees are around to muffle sounds in neighborhoods.

Despite that, people in the city seem to shrug when a neighbor sets off a few firecrackers on New Year's Eve. Palmer Public Safety Director Jon Owen said he had dispatchers pull up all the fireworks-related calls received since January 2007. There were surprisingly few.

"There were maybe two calls on New Year's, double that for the Fourth of July," he said.

Owen said his staff -- including the fire chief -- didn't think seven hours of legal fireworks would cause much problem in Palmer.

Best said he hopes making fireworks legal for a few hours will free up Palmer police to respond to bigger holiday-related problems.

"The police department could be better utilizing those hours, especially on New Year's. Any call where they have to go respond to people popping off fireworks is time they could be spending stopping drunk drivers," he said.

If people go bonkers, Best said, the city might have to reconsider the rule. But he's optimistic.

"We'll give her a whirl and see how it works. I don't think we're going to have too much of a problem," he said.

---

Find Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call her in Wasilla 907-352-6709.

Palmer now allows residents to set off fireworks in city limits, but there are restrictions:

• Fireworks can be legally discharged between 6 p.m. Dec. 31 and 1 a.m. Jan. 1.

• Children must be monitored by an adult 21 years of age or older.

• If the state Division of Forestry or the city has issued a ban on open burning, in a year without snow, for example, setting off fireworks is off-limits.

• Fireworks aren't allowed within 250 feet of a health care facility, assisted-living home, library, school or place of worship. Double that distance from auto service, gas stations or anywhere flammable liquids or gases are kept.

• No fireworks are allowed within 50 feet of a waterway.

• Lighting fireworks from the porch or tossing them out the window of a vehicle are still illegal.