An uphill battle as Southern California cities try to combat illegal Fourth of July fireworks

As the Fourth of July looms each year, Southern California’s police and fire agencies battle a predictable crime: illegal fireworks that will be set off for hours on end, rattling neighborhoods and lighting up the sky. The dangerous effects of the illicit devices are just as predictable, among them injuries, fires, dense smoke and emotional trauma to veterans and others suffering from post-traumatic stress.

To try to get people to stop buying and setting off the illegal devices — from bottle rockets and firecrackers to mortars and aerial shells — local officials for weeks have sent emails, posted on social media and held press conferences, warning of the dangers and cautioning that using them could lead to citations and hefty fines.

On the streets of cities across the region on the Fourth of July, law enforcement will use various strategies to combat the use of such fireworks, with fines and other penalties used as a deterrent. Yet most local officials agree that enforcement is labor-intensive and solving the problem is tricky.

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“It’s an all hands on deck day for us,” said Huntington Beach police Lt. Thoby Archer said. “We’re stretched thin like every coastal city is.”

Every single Huntington Beach police officer will work on the Fourth of July. according to city officials, when calls for service are expected to dramatically rise

Last year, Huntington Beach dispatchers received more than 700 fireworks-related calls, said Jessica Cuchilla, spokeswoman for the police department. That was an increase of about 250 calls from 2022. To combat the increase, the city, like others, has a phone app to report illegal fireworks activity.

The department also has mapped out neighborhoods and addresses that previously have been a problem in an effort to step up patrols in that area. Letters to residents in those neighborhoods were sent prior to the holiday to warn them of the consequences for illegal fireworks activity, Archer said.

Fourth of July house parties increased in the city after the COVID pandemic, which has led to increased firework activity in neighborhoods, the lieutenant said. Any response to a fireworks-related call requires multiple officers.

“Any time someone is going in to potentially cite someone at a party, there’s usually a number of inebriated individuals,” Archer said. “It’s a crowd mentality, so that requires four or more officers to go to a party like that. It’s a huge drain of resources.”

The city’s Fire Department also was preparing by putting together pairs of paramedics to respond to calls. The department was also expecting about double the calls for service, Fire Chief Darrin Witt said.

“Fortunately, we haven’t had large fires, but we have had over the last couple of years some that have turned into full blown residential fires,” Witt said.

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes, at a press conference in late June, said his department receives a 200 percent increase in 911 calls on the Fourth of July alone, “especially when it gets to the sundown hours when fireworks start to detonate.”

Huntington Beach first responders are not alone.

In Riverside, city officials team up to form task forces, which head out to patrol the city, said Riverside City Councilman Jim Perry. Those five to seven task force teams include one police officer and one firefighter or one code enforcement officer.

“That’s their sole responsibility,” Perry said. “The exception to that would be if the officer is the closest unit to an emergency call.”

Agencies in Corona operate the same way sending out similarly assembled task force teams to patrol the city and issue citations, said Cindi Schmitz, a spokeswoman for the city.

“You can imagine, with over 300 calls just on the evening of the Fourth, that both dispatch and first responders are inundated,” Schmitz said.

San Bernardino city police have officers from its Specialized Enforcement Bureau on firework enforcement units and they start their work several weeks in advance of the holiday, looking for those who sell illegal fireworks, including through social media, in order to prevent them from reaching neighborhoods, Capt. Nelson Carrington said. The units also hand out administrative penalties or criminal citations on the Fourth of July.

“We want to be proactive and prevent injuries,” the captain said. “And there have been fires going on. With high temperatures and dry terrain, the last thing we need is a firework landing in that terrain.”

For most cities, the fine for an illegal fireworks citation is $1,000, but in some cities, the fines increase for repeat violators, or officials have increased the base amounts. In 2021, the Corona City Council voted to increase the fine to up to $5,000 for an illegal fireworks violation.

In Murrieta and Pasadena, that amount could run as high as $50,000, officials said.

The fines from those citations go into the general fund of the city’s budget, officials from Riverside and Huntington Beach said.

But enforcement isn’t as easy as it may seem. In order to hand out a citation, a police officer, arson investigator or code enforcement officer has to personally see someone lighting the explosive, officials said.

In addition, if the culprit does not live at the home where the firework was lit, the homeowner could receive a citation for allowing the activity to take place on property, officials said.

To help, many cities allow residents to report illegal firework activity through apps, websites and phone numbers.

Still, those reports don’t always lead to punishments.

“Many times, by the time officers get there a person has lit the firework and has already gone into their home,” Cuchilla, the Huntington Beach police spokeswoman, said.

“You can see an aerial firework going off a couple blocks away and by the time you get there you’re unable to determine who lit the firework,” said Carrington with San Bernardino police.

Riverside has seen a decrease in the number of citations issued over the past three years. Police handed out 144 citations, with $144,000 in fines, in 2019 and 108 citations in 2020, according to the Riverside City Fire Department. Those totals dropped significantly in 2021, to 31 citations and down to 28 in 2023. Officer Ryan Railsback, spokesman for the city’s police department, said staffing levels went down after the COVID pandemic, meaning less enforcement.

Pasadena also saw significant decreases starting in 2021, going from 64 citations in 2020 to 23 the following year, according to data provided by the city. Lisa Derderian, a city spokeswoman, said “enforcement actions were significantly increased” in 2021 and “the effectiveness of this enforcement is evident in the decline in calls for service and subsequent citations issued.”

The department handed out nine citations in 2022, but went back up to 23 in 2023. The agency did not have estimates on the amount of fines it handed out.

In 2022, Corona doled out $33,000 in fines, more than double the year prior, city data provided by Schmitz showed. However, in 2023, the total decreased dramatically to $5,500 worth of fines.

“We continue with the same approach, but fine-tune and build on what is working,” Schmitz said, adding that the city provides education to the community before the holiday and uses the task force approach for enforcement on the holiday.

However, unlike some other cities, Schmitz said the department has not gleaned any trends in regards to fireworks enforcement from their data, though she did say calls for service are slowly decreasing year over, partly due to the increase in fines and pre-holiday communication, including social media posts and door hangers. The city received 478 calls for service regarding fireworks from July 2 to July 4 last year.

The city also runs a parade, festival and a fireworks show, she said.

“The important takeaway here is that these unnecessary calls for service, since fireworks are illegal in the City of Corona, are taking resources away from our community,” Schmitz said.

Police also try to get illegal fireworks before they hit the streets.

In the last few weeks, San Bernardino police have seized 12,000 pounds of illegal fireworks, Carrington said.

During a press conference last week, Barnes said Orange County deputies had seized more than $10,000 worth of illegal fireworks in contract cities and that the department anticipated seizing an additional $5,000 worth before the holiday.

“That is an increase,” Barnes said in comparison to last year. “It could lead to more opportunities for mishaps and injuries. Any illegal firework we confiscate has the potential for a $1,000 fine, not to mention the liability that would be incurred if you injure somebody or damage a home.”

In Riverside, a 23-year-old man was arrested in late June after officers seized more than 1,000 pounds of illegal fireworks and 100 homemade destructive devices from his home, officials said. A Riverside bomb squad received a tip that the man was selling fireworks from his Clifton Boulevard home before investigators found the fireworks on a covered patio.

And in Gardena, in what is considered the largest fireworks seizure in state history, officers found 75 tons of illegal fireworks in a warehouse in the 17000 block of Vermont Avenue in late June and needed help from several other agencies, including those from Riverside and San Bernardino counties, to transport the haul to a facility where they could be disposed of safely.

“The objective of our fireworks plan is to improve the quality of life for the residents in the city of Gardena, namely our seniors, our veterans and our pets to ensure community safety,” Gardena police spokesman Lt. Christopher Cuff told reporters on June 26.