Jefferson County deputies confiscated three 55-gallon drums of rockets, firecrackers and cherry bombs over the long holiday, the first time the county had banned fireworks sales.
“I do think it made a difference,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said Wednesday of the bans on selling and using fireworks.
Fire bans have been enacted this summer by many cities, counties and agencies as the threat of wildfire has grown. Under the bans, the use of fireworks has been prohibited.
For the first time, Jefferson County used a 2002 law that gives counties the authority to ban the sale of fireworks when fire danger is high.
From Friday to Tuesday, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office recorded 23 fireworks complaints in its mountain precinct, 92 in the north precinct and 325 in the south precinct.
In all, 15 summonses were issued. Kelley said it is not unusual to have a low number of summonses while confiscations are high.
“People see that patrol car coming down the street, and they leave the ownership of the fireworks behind,” Kelley said.
The confiscated fireworks will be turned over to the sheriff’s bomb squad for destruction.
Ten West Metro Fire investigators fanned out in the district’s 110-square- mile area, collecting 300 pounds of fireworks and issuing 30 summonses. The district serves 265,000 residents in Lakewood, Morrison, south Jefferson County and part of Wheat Ridge.
“Each of our investigators had five to six calls at any one time,” district spokeswoman Cindy Matthews said.
Other cities along the Front Range reported numerous complaints.
In Denver, a fireworks-enforcement team investigated 195 fireworks incidents, arresting 34 people while confiscating fireworks at 65 places, said Denver police spokeswoman Virginia Quiñones.
Douglas County sheriff’s deputies wrote a single citation after fielding 148 complaint calls and did not confiscate any fireworks. “I think the rain helped,” spokeswoman Cocha Heyden said. “It poured down here in Douglas County, so I don’t think there were a lot of people out there doing fireworks.”
In Fort Collins, college-age revelers near City Park hurled firecrackers out of apartment windows and shot bottle rockets into the air. Police officials there weren’t able to give exact numbers, but a lieutenant said the department was overwhelmed.
“We had a lot of fireworks going off and not enough resources to take care of it all,” Lt. Jim Szakmeister said. “There were just too many for the police to be able to handle.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
