County Judge Imposes Partial Ban on Fireworks Sales

After imposing a ban on the discharge of fireworks, and not imposing a ban on the sale of same, Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert began to have second thoughts, especially when he saw that Harris County Judge Ed Emmett went ahead and banned some fireworks sales. Making their inaction in Fort Bend County look a little weak.

Besides, not all fireworks were banned, just “stick rockets and missiles with fins.” Stick rockets are also known as bottle rockets. You launch them by putting the stick part in a bottle and lighting the fuse.

Supposedly, these kinds of rockets are highly unpredictable and may auger in back on Earth before all of the fuel is spent.

So this led to the “Disaster Declaration for Threat of Wildfires Proclamation for Fort Bend County.” Which was signed the next day by Judge Hebert. Unfortunately, for some reason, what is possible in Harris County is not possible in Fort Bend: the declaration only lasts 60 hours. The 4^th of July is 156 hours past the declaration’s expiration.

So Hebert had to send a request to the governor to extend the declaration, which he did do just today.

“A disaster declaration such as the one Hebert signed can only remain in effect for 60 hours. Hebert appealed to Gov. Perry, who has the power to extend such a ban, in order to prevent sale and discharge of aerial fireworks this July 4 holiday season.”

“‘My primary concern is the safety and welfare of our citizens, and I do not believe that the outdoor burn ban adopted by Commissioner’s Court earlier this week is sufficient to protect life and property as we enter the July 4th season under the current drought conditions and heat advisory,’ Hebert said Friday ‘I am glad that Gov. Perry supports this initiative and I appreciate the fast response we received from him extending the declaration.’”

So Fort Bend County is now safe. Maybe.

I don’t have much fun with bottle rockets. They don’t do much and you can’t really control them. The finned rockets supposedly have fins for stability in flight but they mainly ensure that somewhere along its flight it will turn and crash into someone’s parked car. So I usually stay away from them, too.

The ones I like are the mortar shells. The round finless, stickless rockets that are fired out of a cardboard tube. The sale of these, supposedly, is not banned. And used properly, they generally explode after a short flight straight upward, filling the air with smoke and sparks that harmlessly extinguish long before they return to Earth.

Except for the time that I saw one fired horizontally and it exploded just above a field of dry brush turning it into a 100 square foot inferno.

The point is, if the safety and welfare of the citizens of Fort Bend County is really and truly the primary concern here, why not err on the side of caution and issue an outright ban on the sale of all fireworks?

Or would that cause irreparable harm to fireworks manufacturers and sellers?

So maybe we know what is really the primary concern, here, and it isn’t public safety.

County Commissioners Approve of Sales, but Not Discharge of Fireworks

This is typical.

In response to having had several weeks now without a drop of rain and record hot dry days, the Fort Bend County Commissioners this week approved a motion by County Fire Marshal Vance Cooper to declare a “burn ban” in the county.

A burn ban effectively means no open flames are allowed because it might set off wildfires.

And because we are just 10 days out from Independence Day, that means open flames also apply to fireworks.

And that’s a good thing. That is the responsible thing to do. Because what those of you not from around here may not know is that here in Fort Bend County we take our fireworks seriously. We are not of the namby pamby sparkler set, now. When it comes to fireworks we don’t mess around.

Literally.

Around here you can purchase just about any kind of fireworks made. I’m talking rockets and bombs, here. In my youth we had to travel to Mexico to find fireworks of that sort.

What is typical, though, is that the burn ban falls short of banning the sale of fireworks in Fort Bend County. That’s right, you can buy them, but you can’t set them off.

From FortBendNow:

“Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers agreed with Hebert, saying the ban won’t prevent fireworks sales but does make lighting or discharging fireworks illegal.”

“Because of a law requiring a lead time before banning fireworks sales, “the only thing we can do is prevent people from setting fireworks off,” Meyers said.”

This makes absolutely no sense at all, which is why I am not surprised that the Commissioners Court signed off on it. Why? Because your typical fireworks-burning yahoo here in Fort Bend County does not read the local papers. Your typical yahoo doesn’t even know what a Commissioners Court is or what it does.

But he does buy lots and lots of fireworks.

You know, allowing fireworks to be purchased within your jurisdiction is tantamount to an agreement that once bought, the purchaser can put them to the use that they were intended for.

It’s like allowing the sale of bottled water in the county, but forbidding the use of it to quench your thirst after a long hot day outside mowing the ever-browning lawn.

But we here in Fort Bend County don’t want to stand in the way of free enterprise. No way will we stifle the merchandising of firestorm delivery systems. Because we support the capitalist way of life here. Regulating commerce?

That’s Obama Socialism writ large.

Happy Soggy Fourth!

Well it’s the 4th of July and here in southeast Texas we have yet another massive storm system passing slowly, ever so slowly through the area.

The news is full of cancelled parades, festivals and fireworks shows. That being the case, maybe the only fireworks my 6 nearby readers will ever see today will be the one that they can see by clicking on the YouTube frame below.

They say it’s the world’s largest fireworks display on record so . . . well . . . there’s that.