The Washougal City Council has passed an ordinance that allows the mayor to restrict the discharge and sale of fireworks during times of extreme fire danger.
The ordinance will go into place in 2017 due to a state law that requires 365 days’ notice for new fireworks regulations.
With the new ordinance, Washougal’s mayor will be allowed to put the restriction in place after consulting with the fire marshal, fire chief and other officials. The restrictions can limit just the discharge or sale of fireworks, or both, and can be on all fireworks, or just the more heavy duty ones. The group discussing the restrictions will decide whether to restrict discharge and/or sales, and for what kinds of fireworks.
On May 23, the council voted 5-2 in favor of the ordinance, with Michelle Wagner and Jennifer McDaniel voting against it. At the council workshop earlier that day, Wagner said she felt it was “strictly a safety call so it should be left up to fire marshal.”
When discussing the ordinance, there were two versions: one giving the mayor the power to restrict firework discharge and sales, and another giving that power to the fire marshal.
“It doesn’t matter to me who’s got the authority, as long as we’ve got clear authority in there,” Mayor Sean Guard said at the workshop. “I want to make sure we’ve got the ability to put in the safety protections that we need for the community.”
Ron Schumacher, fire marshal for the Camas-Washougal Fire Department, said he would have been fine with the ordinance written either way. Even so, he said, the decision would be more a political one, so he preferred the version that gives the final call to the mayor. He said he doesn’t think the ordinance will come into play too often.
“It would have to be pretty serious before we do it, given the effects that it could cause,” he said, noting that a lot of local organizations and nonprofits sell fireworks to raise money around the Fourth of July.
Part of the reason Guard didn’t object to either ordinance is because the way they were written, there will have to be some discussion first.
“Regardless who it is, we’re all going to be talking to each other just before that decision is made, so, in reality, it’s probably going to be a joint decision with concurrence,” he said. “I don’t think you’re going to see one side versus the other.”
Washougal City Administrator David Scott said the ordinance was a “direct response to the very dry season that we had last year, and the elevated fire risk that resulted from that.”
“If we do have an event like what we had last year, it will be another tool we can use to restrict some of the use and prevent somebody’s house from burning down,” Schumacher said.
There weren’t any restrictions the city could impose last year, Scott said, so it asked residents for a voluntary scaling back just to be safe.
“People took that to heart,” Schumacher said. “In our communities, we had very little fires.”
Last year, there was an estimated $574,376 in property damage due to fireworks in Vancouver, according to The Columbian. That led Vancouver City Council to unanimously vote to ban personal fireworks sales and use within city limits, which will start in 2017.
Camas has the same firework ordinance that Washougal put in place, as the Camas City Council voted last year to give the mayor the ability to restrict the discharge and sale of fireworks. The city also voted to cut down the number of days that residents can discharge fireworks in city limits to just July 3 and 4, and can sell fireworks to July 2 through 5. This year, however, Camas residents are allowed to light fireworks the first four days of July. Camas’ new fireworks laws will also go into place in 2017.
Washougal allows the discharge of fireworks only on July 4, and unincorporated Clark County allows for fireworks discharge June 28 through July 4. Battle Ground and Ridgefield allow fireworks discharge from June 28 through July 5, and La Center allows it from June 29 through July 4.
