Fireworks in Phoenix will be loud this Fourth of July, but most of what people hear will be illegal under Arizona rules. Andy Biggs pushed the 2010 law that made some consumer fireworks legal while leaving detonating, exploding and airborne fireworks banned except in expert-run shows.
Officials typically say that if you can hear the firework, it probably was not a legal one. Arizona’s limits grew out of wildfire risk in the state’s hot summer desert environment, and the law still leaves cities with their own enforcement power.
Andy Biggs and 2010
Biggs, a Republican congressman and former state lawmaker, said Arizona had legal fireworks when he was a “little kid,” and later told The Republic, “All the states around us had legal fireworks and Mexico had fireworks, and so people still had fireworks,” and “I think that I just felt like we were missing something, allowing people to make that choice and celebrate.”
At a committee hearing, he also described fireworks as creating “a sense of exuberance and life that exceeds the normal, drab, day-to-day,” and said people should “feel like celebrating in a way our forebearers did.”
Kristi Gagnon and fire risk
Kristi Gagnon, president of the Arizona Fire Marshals Association, said, “We were opposed to that legislation,” and added, “Our focus is strictly on the fire risk and the life-safety risk, and fireworks poses a risk to both of those areas.” Jan Brewer vetoed Biggs’s 2009 fireworks bill because it did not sufficiently address fire risk.
The 1941 state law made all fireworks illegal in Arizona and set a $100 fine for violators. Biggs’s 2010 bill changed that by allowing some legal fireworks, letting city officials enforce their own rules and directing fireworks-fine money into the state’s wildfire suppression fund.
Arizona fines and arrests
Police officers must have visual evidence of a suspect misusing fireworks to make an arrest, and some cities impose fines of up to $2,500 for violations. That leaves holiday users with a narrow choice: commercial shows are legal, and only limited consumer fireworks that fit state and city rules can be bought and used without running into enforcement.
For readers in Arizona, the practical line is simple on July 4: if a firework detonates, explodes or flies into the air, it is not legal unless it is part of a commercial show put on by experts. The harder question is which items sold in stores meet the state and city rules, and that is the line holiday buyers have to check before they light anything.
