BATON ROUGE- As another fireworks sales season begins, the State Fire Marshal’s Office wants to encourage all Louisiana residents to not only be safe when using fireworks, but knowledgeable when buying them.
More than 500 retail fireworks permits have been issued for the 2019 Fourth of July season, as it is state law for wholesale and retail fireworks business operators to be appropriately licensed by the SFM, in the parishes and municipalities where they are legally allowed. The sales season extends through July 4th.
The SFM encourages, first and foremost, that families to choose to enjoy public fireworks displays over creating their own. However, if purchasing fireworks is your preference, we advise families to be mindful of whether the stand they are purchasing from has been permitted by this office. You can request to see permitting information from any retail fireworks business you patron. The SFM encourages reporting any suspicious or illegal sales of fireworks to 1-800-256-5452 or by visiting our website, lasfm.org.
In addition, we want everyone to enjoy fireworks in the safest way possible. A study by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) shows that over 200 people on average go the emergency room every day with fireworks-related injuries in the month around the July 4th holiday.
To avoid becoming part of this statistic, the SFM advises:
Detonating devices at least 200 feet away from structures, vehicles and rubbish
Never allowing children to light fireworks
Never operating fireworks while impaired
Lighting devices one at a time and monitoring embers released with a bucket of water or hose nearby
Discarding detonated items by wetting them down to prevent reignition and not disposing of them in a trash container immediately
Hah! in my neighborhood they get drunk and go nuts with fireworks. As usual they don’t care about anything or anyone. Then for days afterwards we are picking up spent rockets out of our yard, off the roof of the house. Tried calling the Natch Police a few years ago and was scolded by the officer who said, “I just see a group of Americans blowing off a little steam and having fun.”
So, go ahead Natch do whatever you want with fireworks. Get drunk! shoot rockets at your neighbors!
Until someone gets seriously hurt or worse then there’ll be questions and outrage why something wasn’t done. Then sue the Natch PD and the City for being complicit.
It’s the loud ones that sound like cannons and rattle windows that are the problem. They should ban those. Scares my little dogs, they go under furniture traumatized.