Fireworks sales ahead of New Year's Day kicked off in Clark County on Thursday morning. Gene Marlow, owner of Mean Gene Fireworks in Camas, said sales each year depend on the weather. (Photos by ARIANE KUNZE/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
CAMAS — Thursday morning marked the first day of fireworks sales ahead of New Year’s Day. At Mean Gene Fireworks, off of Highway 14, lunchtime shoppers and small families came looking to get the biggest bang for their buck.
On sale are the usual fare, such as sparklers and ground blooms. The big pyrotechnics, like large stacks of fireworks called powder kegs, are just a table away. Those are designed colorfully or with skulls with smoke emanating from the eye sockets, and have such names as Show Starter, Bad Influence and Friggin’ Awesome.
One customer approached worker Riley Moses and asked which fireworks are the loudest. Moses, of Camas, pointed them toward the powder kegs. It’s been good business so far, he said.
“Before we even set up, someone showed up and came and asked what we had,” he said.
The biggest seller by far are mortar shells, Moses said. Next up are the powder kegs, which pack 200 to 500 grams of gunpowder into a cube the size of a milk crate. Those send fireballs into the air.
Gene Marlow, the owner and namesake of the fireworks stand, said he hoped for big New Year’s Day sales this year. Sales have increased over the years, he said, but every year depends on the weather.
But this year marks the first year since the late 1990s that residents in unincorporated Clark County can legally ignite fireworks on New Year’s Eve, according to Clark County Fire Marshal Jon Dunaway.
Clark County commissioners decided in September 2014 to split the county into two zones for fireworks, split by Northeast 219th Street, and limit residents south of that line to two days of fireworks. In addition to July 4, the county added New Year’s Eve to one of the two permissible days. The ordinance went into effect this year.
Dunaway, who has been county fire marshal for 12 years, said New Year’s Day is at least a safer time to light fireworks than the Fourth of July due to the winter weather.
“But it’s easy to get complacent, and it’s important to not do that,” he said. “It’s important that people remember fireworks carry the same hazards in December as they do in July and they need to be safe with them.”
Statistics on the amount of calls for service regarding fireworks-related fires during those holidays weren’t immediately available, but the county has grown in size — and so, too, have the number of complaints, Dunaway said.
“One of the things we ask is try your best to be a good neighbor,” he said.
Dunaway added that the rules have not changed on where people can sell fireworks. Fireworks can be sold only in cities that allow them, such as Camas, not in unincorporated county territory.
For New Year’s in Clark County, the county itself and all but three cities have the same window when it’s legal to set off fireworks: 6 p.m. Dec. 31 to 1 a.m. Jan. 1. Ridgefield only allows fireworks from 9 p.m. Dec. 31 to 1 a.m. Jan. 1, while Vancouver and La Center don’t allow fireworks for New Year’s Day at all.
“I kind of agree,” said Keith Mabry, 53, who works in Camas and said the rules for when and where it’s illegal can be confusing. “I’m not that into it even though I was when I was a kid.”
Fines for illegal fireworks possession and usage can be expensive — up to $1,000 and a possible 90-day jail sentence.
Moses, the fireworks stand worker, said he expected business to pick up as New Year’s Day came closer. Especially on Dec. 31, he said.
“We get swamped,” he said.
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