Fireworks displays, even those put on by professionals, are a problem for fire departments. Citing the high fire danger, Prescott Fire Chief Dennis Light decided to cancel this year’s July 4th fireworks display, set to be launched from downtown.
“As a municipality, the determination to allow or not allow fireworks is incumbent upon the Fire Chief and is made based upon the factors of being able to manage the risk such activities pose,” Light said. “In our instance, it really comes down to ‘risk avoidance’ in lieu of ‘risk management.’ In the city, as the fire chief, I am called upon to make the determination and given the environmental conditions of little to no precipitation, continued hot and dry forecast, location for which fireworks were planned, and other factors, such as first responder fatigue, along with some other variables, I opted to not allow them to occur.”
But while a city’s fire chief can issue that ruling, the chief of a fire authority or fire district, which is not a part of a municipal government, cannot.