There are many legal, safe and free options to see fireworks in Wilkes-Barre for the Fourth of July, such as the city’s annual celebration in Kirby Park.
Times Leader File Photo
The season of illegal fireworks has already begun and will hit full boom this week, prompting our annual plea: If you absolutely feel you must set off explosives, especially the airborne variety, be courteous and responsible.
We say illegal because, at least in Wilkes-Barre, a city ordinance essentially bans most fireworks by logically requiring a minimum distance of 150 feet from any building. In a municipality as densely populated as the Diamond City, there is no place you can actually safely set off any aerial displays.
This, sadly, does not stop enough people from shooting things off in their back yards, an action that pointlessly puts others at risk from fires started by stray sparks or damage or injury due to misfired rockets.
But the hazards go beyond such obvious concerns. Loud, unexpected noises can trigger attacks of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in veterans. They can scare pets and frighten children. They can disrupt the sleep of people who may desperately need it because, by day, they do mission-critical work at hospitals or as emergency responders.
This is true even of “ground-based fireworks” that make loud noises without the risks of flying sparks.
It may seem like ancient history, but we offer a brief recap of how things went from bad to worse in the Keystone State. People have long shot off fireworks unsafely in our area despite the option of professional displays offered throughout the region. But state lawmakers made things much more dangerous in 2017 with the passage of a law making “consumer fireworks” legal. People no longer had to cross the border and smuggle the stuff in, they could get the goods practically in their own back yards.
The move was clearly intended to raise bucks the state felt it was losing out on: Lawmakers levied an 18% tax on fireworks sales, 12% higher than the statewide sales tax of 6%. But apparently, Harrisburg either figured out the dangers it had unleashed or got a big enough earful of criticism to back up the truck.
In 2022, the state modified the law to allow municipalities to ban setting off fireworks within 150 feet of inhabited buildings. Wilkes-Barre quickly passed such an ordinance, and it did seem to help reduce the number of endless explosions reverberating for weeks throughout Wyoming Valley. Reduce, but not eliminate.
To quote a 2021 editorial on this topic: ‘We doubt people so disrespectful of the law, disinterested in the safety of their own neighborhood, and so insensitive to the actual neighbors read editorials, but we keep trying.”
And we’re trying again now. Please, if you must set off fireworks, avoid airborne variations. Please be considerate and end your personal noise and light show by 11 p.m. or so. Please limit your celebration to one or two nights (valley residents have already been subject to a week or more of pre-July 4 booms). And please make the best choice of all: Go to a professional display and enjoy the offerings of others. This will save you money, keep yourself and your neighbors safe, and avoid making you a law-breaker.
And who knows, you may be offering a lesson in caring for others that could eventually be repaid to you.
