Every year in late spring, the folks from Phantom Fireworks demo the season’s hottest new pyrotechnics for the sales staff at a location just across the Colorado border in Wyoming.
It’s one awesome fireworks display, with showers of falling stars and bursts of colorful blossoms of glittering light, and all of it – including the sparkling 500-gram repeaters and the Mineshell Mayhem – is for sale just a short drive north of Denver on Interstate 25.
Business at Phantom is booming this time of year, said assistant store manager Mark Elbert, and lots of the customers come from the Denver area.
Never mind that firecrackers, bottle rockets and even sparklers are illegal in Denver, the customers keep crossing the border anyway, often spending hundreds of dollars at a time.
Information about local laws is provided, and sheets outlining safety precautions “go out the door with every customer,” said Elbert. “We try to sell the safest product out there, but we can’t control who’s buying it.
“We sell to anybody.”
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Blowing things up is a sacred tradition on the Fourth of July, though business at Phantom is also brisk around New Year’s Eve, Labor Day, wedding season and Guy Fawkes Day.
Yes, Guy Fawkes Day. We Americans explode things to celebrate overthrowing the British on one holiday, and four months later, we do it in honor of a famous British pyromaniac. Is this a great country or what?
Keep in mind that buying fireworks in Wyoming is perfectly legal. It’s when the stuff is exploded in Denver and other surrounding communities that laws are broken.
Convicted fireworks scofflaws can be sentenced to a year in jail and fined up to $999.
Enforcement long has been considered a joke, though.
“Face it, we’re overmatched,” said Lt. Phil Champagne, spokesman for the Denver Fire Department.
With the large fireworks operations in Wyoming and small fireworks stands in unincorporated areas all over the state, there’s no shortage of readily available explosives for anyone who wants to celebrate America’s independence with contraband combustibles.
So police try to focus their efforts where the danger is greatest, and that tends to be at city parks where people gather to watch the big, professional fireworks displays.
When firecrackers explode amid the crowds of children, it’s frightening and hazardous, Champagne said. “It’s terribly irresponsible.”
The greatest risk is for toddlers. They often grab burning sparklers or run up to look at exploding rockets, suffering burns, blindness or other serious injuries.
“ER doctors will tell you, fireworks are very dangerous for that age group,” he said.
Still, use of fireworks grows every year, Elbert said. “Some states limit it to the safe and sane variety, but a lot of people want to come up here for the ‘good stuff.”‘
He declined to reveal sales figures. “Let’s just say it’s a very lucrative industry.”
The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated sales of fireworks in the U.S. at 272 million pounds in 2006.
On Saturday night, it was definitely the “good stuff” that was waking neighbors all over town, though few arrests were made.
City officials admit fireworks bans are tough to enforce.
“We’re realistic,” Champagne said. “We know it’s going to happen. Every year, we get deluged with calls.”
This year, the city has launched a campaign against fireworks, complete with a complaint hotline: 720-913-2000.
Champagne said he’s optimistic that the city will make progress, especially if people are willing to file formal complaints instead of just anonymous gripes.
Prosecution is easier now that more complaints arrive accompanied by pictures.
Yes, those ubiquitous cellphone cameras are catching fireworks bandits in the act.
“It’s irrefutable evidence,” Champagne said.
And Fourth of July exuberance is no excuse.
It may seem harsh after years of looking the other way, but as it says on the bumper stickers on cars parked at fireworks stands everywhere: What part of illegal do they not understand?
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
