BY MAIRE O’NEILL maire@losalamosreporter.com

Los Alamos County Council meeting virtually Tuesday evening unanimously approved a County proclamation imposing restrictions and limiting the use of fireworks during extreme drought conditions. The proclamation was brought to Council by Los Alamos Fire Marshal Wendy Servey and Fire Chief Troy Hughes and will be in effect for 30 days.

Servey said her office will be issuing some publicity to help people better understand the restrictions.

“People can still use little ground fireworks in a barren area or on berms if they have a way to extinguish them,” she said.

Under the state Fireworks Licensing and Safety Act, the County is empowered to ban or limit the use and sale of certain fireworks when it has been determined that extreme or severe drought conditions exist in the County. The National Weather Service has indicated that extreme drought conditions exist in the County and predicts that those conditions will persist and are already causing an increase in fire activity such as the Cerro Pelado, Calf Canyon, Hermit’s Peak and Cooks Peak Fires early in the wildfire season as compared to the past years.

On April 25, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order declaring severe drought and fire conditions through the state and urging local governments to ban fireworks, on the same day that Servey declared Stage 2 Fire Restriction within the County and on May 5 the County went into Stage 3 restrictions. The proposed proclamation states that the use of fireworks of all kinds presents a serious potential for the ignition of unwanted fires under present drought conditions, which may spread rapidly and become a threat to the health, safety and welfare of the residents and visitors of the County.

The proclamation bans the sale or use of aerial devices and ground audible devices, including aerial shell kit reloadable tubes, aerial spinners, helicopters, mines, missile-type rockets, multiple tube devices, roman candles type (able to shoot balls of flame 50-60 plus feet in the air), shells, stick-type rockets, chasers, and firecrackers as those terms are defined in state statutes for the next 30 days on all lands, public and private within the County.

The use of ground and hand-held sparkling devices, including cone fountains, crackling devices, cylindrical fountains, flitter sparklers, ground spinners, illuminating torches/static (non-flame shooting type) roman candles, toy smoke devices and wheels as they are defined in NMSA 1978, Section 60-2C-2.

 PERMITTED ONLY IF: (a) The use is within a space having an area of at least four hundred square feet, which space is paved or entirely barren of vegetation, and the ground or hand-held sparkling device is used or placed at least five feet from the perimeter of the paved or barren area;

AND (b) there is an operable garden hose or similar device within reach of the area where the fireworks are used and capable of providing water at a rate of at least four gallons per minute for a continuous period of at least 10 minutes.

The possession of fireworks of all kinds, including ground and hand-held sparkling devices, whether or not legally acquired and whether or not intended for immediate use is PROHIBITED within the open space, parks, campsites, horse stables and other recreational areas and lands owned by the County, except for the transport of legally acquired fireworks within enclosed vehicles on public roads of the County. Display fireworks require a permit from the Fire Marshal’s office. 

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