4th of july celibrations...did your area allow them? USA

[Daveroo]

kinda silly to ask a British person of they celibrated the USA 4th of july huh?...ok sorry..no offence ment...but those of us who do celibrate,,,who got to with fireworks? either at home or at your local fairground?

we are in a solid "RED FLAG" condition here in the NEU ranger unit (nevada,yuba,placer counties)and have been having temps in ranging from 95F to 103F,winds to 12 mph and humidity was at 12% last night at 8PM,even the "safe and sane" home fire works are illegal here,only ones we get are at the public shows at the local fairground's and then last nights was held off ( the aireal part until the wind died down because the fairground is on the edge of the 1100ft deep american river canyon and its a BLM wildland/wildlife preserve and is ,,,well...wild....the grasses are 4 or 5 ft high,very dry brush,,,even though last tuesday we had 1.25" of rain...it just knocked the dust and dirt off...the heat and wind following just dried it all out....

[Willy]

After the big cookout, our grown kids went together and bought $200 worth of fireworks and had a grand time with them in the front yard.

[Jagdflieger]

Puget Sound traditionally makes an extravaganza of the 4th. Like past years, there was a surfeit of BBQs and fireworks. Many of the neigborhood fireworks are now professional quality.

My wife and I sat out on the back patio and enjoyed probably two hours of non-stop air burst fireworks that lit up the night. I got a laugh out of the news yesterday when a Portland, Oregon station whined that Washington State was the source of all the illegal fireworks in Oregon. I guess they get scared pretty easilly down there.

[Panther_99FS]

No.
It's only rained twice since January - brush fire danger waaaay too high...

[TARPSBird]

Here in Norfolk only non-explosive stuff like sparklers and sidewalk worms are legal but there's always some heavy ordnance going off. Also rockets, Roman candles, fountains, etc. We have a high enough daily crime rate that Norfolk PD usually doesn't patrol residential areas looking for people lighting firecrackers. In my neighborhood the folks down the street usually fire off as much stuff on New Years Eve as they do on the 4th. :)

[n4gix]

For the past thirteen years I've dreaded both July 4th and New Year's Eve, mostly because many of my crazy neighbors seem to think that it gives them license to discharge their firearms, in the air, never the least concerned with the law of gravity...

...and the possible unintended consequences of bullet-hail on their neighbor's property or lives.

There's nothing quite as frightening as listening to some jackass rip through several full clips while on full automatic... :tgun2:

...not to mention what sounds entirely too much like quarter sticks of dynamite being recklessly set off.

Imagine my complete surprise to NOT hear a single gun-shot this year! But yes, we had a LOT of "legal" fireworks this year... :applause:

[robert41]

No problems in this area, East Central Wisconsin. I remember 5 years or so ago, we could spend 2 or 300 USD and have a real good 4TH. Now, I hear some people spend 7, 8, 900 USD for a 4TH. A bit much for me. Seems like in the last 2 or 3 years, there has been less and less fireworks going off. Maybe the cost?

[Willy]

Yeah, I kind of thought that the kids spent too much money on fireworks, but it's their money. Now if they come around with their hands out next week, I'll point out what they spent on the 4th.

[OBIO]

Here in the "great" state of Ohio, it is legal to purchase fireworks (firecrackers, roman candles, bottle rockets and such) but it is NOT legal to set them off inside the state. When you go to one of the licensed and legal fireworks stores to purchase things that go BOOM, you have to sign paperwork stating that you are purchasing the stuff to use OUTSIDE of Ohio. Everyone signs, no one sticks to it. We had probably a dozen neighbors (including a Deputy Sheriff) setting off fire crackers, roman candles, bottle rockets...and a couple of our neighbors had some pretty large mortar type shells....the kind that go THUMP and shoot way up into the air and then go BOOOOOOM!

It is legal in Ohio to use sparklers, those little popper things that look like small plastic champagne bottles and shoot out the little paper streams, those sidewalk snake things. And those little snapper things...the small paper things that "explode" when you throw them down on the sidewalk.

OBIO

[Willy]

If there's any restrictions here in Tennessee, I've never heard of them. The kids had a bunch of those mortars last night.

[Trans_23]

Even though they are mostly illegal here in Illinois, nothing is enforced in my area on and around the fourth. I have seen private fireworks displays that rival a towns display. Most people in this area go over to Indiana to get their stuff. Then there are the ones that have contacts to get the 3,4,5,and 6 inch mortars. Just to give you an idea of cost. A good price for a 3" mortar is $5 EACH. Probably looking at around $25 a piece for a 5". Too rich for my blood but apparently not to other as there were a lot of big private displays within view of my house over the weekend.

Here is a video of the finale of the fireworks display in the town I live in.

http://newlenox.patch.com/articles/video-catch-the-fireworks-finale#video-6875740

[olderndirt]

As 'Jagdflieger' said, Washington enjoys fireworks. Here in Rochester, the capitol of Sweden in western America, several evenings of rehearsals led to a very nice show. Not so heavy on the visuals, our Douglas firs are all 150' plus, but plenty of noise which is kind of what the guy was implying when he wrote "by the rockets' red glare, bombs bursting on air". I'm quite content to be an American.

[Odie]

kinda silly to ask a British person of they celibrated the USA 4th of july huh?...ok sorry..no offence ment...but those of us who do celibrate,,,who got to with fireworks? either at home or at your local fairground?

we are in a solid "RED FLAG" condition here in the NEU ranger unit (nevada,yuba,placer counties)and have been having temps in ranging from 95F to 103F,winds to 12 mph and humidity was at 12% last night at 8PM,even the "safe and sane" home fire works are illegal here,only ones we get are at the public shows at the local fairground's and then last nights was held off ( the aireal part until the wind died down because the fairground is on the edge of the 1100ft deep american river canyon and its a BLM wildland/wildlife preserve and is ,,,well...wild....the grasses are 4 or 5 ft high,very dry brush,,,even though last tuesday we had 1.25" of rain...it just knocked the dust and dirt off...the heat and wind following just dried it all out....

In and around Lake Villa, IL where I was for the holiday weekend, fireworks started on 7/1 and continued thru late, late, 7/4. There's 3 lakes within walking distance of the house and nearly all the little villages along the lakes had fireworks. If you wanted fireworks and couldn't find them, you weren't looking! Here, in Texas (where I've relocated to), it's been really dry and we've got "extreme wildfire" warnings along every road.

[Daveroo]

yesterday 7-7-11, we had a fire ..i dont know the acreage,,it wasnt all that large,but was distructive,ive read the report this morning and it says it was started by kids playing with fire works in a field....ack

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Not a lot of 4th of July celebrations in Canada...

As for fire Daveroo you have noticed that Cal Fire cut crew staffing 25% (3 guys instead of 4) on pumpers and only has (if they have it) a call when needed contract with the company supplying DC10 air tankers. Victorville is being demanned. Also the 747 air tanker doesn't yet have a contract with anybody for tanker services. Those very large air tanker (VLAT) aircraft may well be scrapped or put in mothballs or something as nobody wants to pay the cost of the "downtime". Unfortunately not many of the states that have maintained or increased state spending in order to reap the benefits of both higher GDP and lower unemployment (3 years data on 49 states is showing this) are big fire states this year.

Anyway I assume you regularly read the blog at wildfiretodaydotcom.

-Ed-

[Daveroo]

Hey All,

Not a lot of 4th of July celebrations in Canada...

As for fire Daveroo you have noticed that Cal Fire cut crew staffing 25% (3 guys instead of 4) on pumpers and only has (if they have it) a call when needed contract with the company supplying DC10 air tankers. Victorville is being demanned. Also the 747 air tanker doesn't yet have a contract with anybody for tanker services. Those very large air tanker (VLAT) aircraft may well be scrapped or put in mothballs or something as nobody wants to pay the cost of the "downtime". Unfortunately not many of the states that have maintained or increased state spending in order to reap the benefits of both higher GDP and lower unemployment (3 years data on 49 states is showing this) are big fire states this year.

Anyway I assume you regularly read the blog at wildfiretodaydotcom.

-Ed-
my department allways had 3 man crews we had to allways have 2 engines (the state requires 4 men per call,)and thanks for that link ed..i didnt have that