Fire Fears, Economy Snuffing 4th Fireworks

Hot, Dry Conditions, Short Supply And Funding Mean Darker Independence Day

(AP)  Those seeking the oohs and aahs of traditional Fourth of July fireworks could be sadly disappointed this year: Public displays and sales of boxed firecrackers are being canceled or scaled back across the nation, victims of a sluggish economy, wildfire fears and product shortages caused by a warehouse fire in China.

With Northern California already battling a string of wildfires, fire officials in Scotts Valley, south of San Jose, concluded that going ahead with the annual show would send the wrong message when residents have been asked to refrain from setting off even tiny sparklers in their backyards.

Fire Chief Mike McMurry, who has worked in Scotts Valley for 31 years, could not recall another time when dry weather snuffed out the show. "It's all about the severity of the conditions right now," he said.

Aside from the fire danger, local governments are also short of money because of the slumping economy. Fireworks supplies are petering out, too, because China is running short of ports from which to ship the dangerous cargoes abroad.

Small towns looking for a new vendor have been calling Zambelli Fireworks Internationale of New Castle, Pa., but the company can't take on any new customers, said Doug Taylor, president and CEO. Like many companies, Zambelli, one of the nation's top five display companies, has used its large inventory to take care of its Fourth of July customers.

The show will go on in the Cleveland suburb of Independence, said Fire Chief Pete Nelson. Some shells will have to be substituted for others, but Nelson still expects a 20-minute show.

"The average person won't notice anything," he said.

But the holiday will be noticeably darker in many other areas. In Texas, four parched counties obtained emergency declarations prohibiting the sale of personal fireworks. In Massachusetts, several towns said fewer donations from corporate sponsors made it too expensive to mount local celebrations.

The average aerial display lasts about 15 minutes and costs $10,000. Larger cities spend about $100,000 for bigger shows.

The vast majority of Independence Day blazes are sparked by amateurs igniting illegal fireworks such as Roman candles and M80s. Officials in many drought-stricken areas of the West and Southeast decided the risk was too great this year to put fireworks in the hands of anyone but professionals.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has urged residents not to buy fireworks from roadside stands and asked local governments to consider banning their sale.

The Kiwanis Club of Mariposa, Calif., a town about 70 miles northwest of Fresno, canceled its fireworks show because firefighters were using the county fairgrounds as a staging area to contain a blaze that has blackened more than 2,700 acres. Last month, the Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia, Calif., canceled its nightly fireworks shows for the entire summer.

The conditions also affect nonprofit groups that sell fireworks to raise money.

In Lake County, 80 miles north of San Francisco, an organization that helps beauty pageant contestants buy gowns and travel to competitions decided to heed the governor's plea not to sell fireworks. But doing so meant giving up $10,000 - more than 75 percent of the group's yearly budget.

"I look outside and there's so much smoke I can't even see across the lake," said Trish Combs, executive director of the Miss Lake County Scholarship Organization. "It's a good reminder that we made the right decision for the community. But this is a real tough situation for us."

The city councils of Watsonville and Gilroy, Calif., which are in wildfire-prone Santa Cruz County, both considered outlawing consumer fireworks sales for the year.

Watsonville officials unanimously approved a ban, but Gilroy council members rejected the measure after a heated meeting that pitted the demands of youth football teams, cheerleaders and other groups with permits to sell fireworks against the concerns of fearful homeowners.

Rather than outlawing all fireworks, officials in Bexar County, Texas, have established 10 "safe zones" where the public will be allowed to light fireworks under the watch of volunteer firefighters.

Financial constraints have been more of a factor than fire in some places where organizers have called off their civic displays. For example, Cocoa Beach, Fla., and Chula Vista, Calif., decided they couldn't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a form of entertainment that would be over in a flash.

"Local businesses foot the bill," said Charles Billias, city manager in Cocoa Beach. "The money isn't there." The city also had trouble securing a barge from which to launch fireworks and getting security clearance to take fireworks onto it.

The price of commercial fireworks shot up this year because of an explosion in China's port of Sanshui that destroyed 20 fireworks warehouses and caused Chinese officials to stop shipping fireworks out of the port because of safety concerns.

That left only the smaller port of Beihai open for shipment of professional-grade fireworks, making it harder for American vendors to obtain shipments from the nation that supplies the United States with 80 percent of its professional and 98 percent of its consumer fireworks.

Some shows that were booked well in advance may be shorter than usual and have fewer pyrotechnic effects. But to avoid cancellations, fireworks companies dug into their inventories and paid more money to get products from other suppliers.

In Greenville, S.C., Fire Marshall Larry Godfrey said the poor economy may have a silver lining when it comes to fire prevention: Many residents feeling the financial squeeze of rising gas prices are buying fewer fireworks and will probably attend public displays rather than putting on their own.

"People just don't have the money to do it, I think," Godfrey said. "But the larger shows are going on and they are supervised."

Struggles for the $930 million fireworks industry won't end on July 4 because security concerns surrounding the Olympics in Beijing will create an even bigger shipping problem.

The port of Shanghai, which handles consumer fireworks, shut down Monday through at least the end of August to ensure security for the Olympics, which begin Aug. 8.

Cities and private groups that didn't have to pay more for upcoming Fourth of July shows can expect price increases, said Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association.

"It's going to put a crunch on our New Year's and Christmas season," Heckman said.

[cfin5]

I''ve been thinking today about my last post and how incomplete it was. I failed to mention those who are really leading us back to our Constitution in the here and now. I will narrow it down to the one man on the radio, not to discredit any other at all, but if I was the one to choose a winner in a VERY close race,......it is a Jewish man, a great American by the name of "Mark Levin". Thank you very much sir!

[whiskyrocker]

Everybody go out and shoot your guns off.

[cfin5]

Since this is the ONLY story on CBS with an Independence Day theme, forget the fireworks. I want to thank the real "Men of Freedom" of our past for their diligence in the same. Starting with Mr. John Locke, wouldn''t he have liked to see the seeds that he planted grow in strength into men like our Founding Fathers,.....students of Locke they were indeed. George Washington is one of the most amazing men I''ve ever read about. Who of his wealth and statue is as humble before God as a common man? Or as wise for that matter? Oh how I wish America would stop and consider the "social and political policy mathematics" that we have inflicted on ourselves and return to what made us great in the first place. When the next "Alexis de Tocqueville" observer comes around,......what would he say about us now? You know the rest of that question if you know our history......Be careful today folks and have a good one!

[alphaa10-2009]

The American Free Market Is Not Free

The blustering ignorance of free market buffs has been laid bare-- the market does not regulate itself any more than a plundering army, sacking and burning a city, does urban renewal.

Likewise, an economy in recession is a city on fire, and the entire world worries how far and fast it might spread.

Deutsche Bank''s 30-year veteran CEO, Josef Ackermann, said recently he no longer believes in the self-correcting nature of the market.

Until now, it has been an article of faith for true believers the market is an organic, intelligent entity acting in its own interest. Ackermann''s comment has the impact of claiming "the God of Markets is dead".

(See "The American Free Market Is Not Free-- 2")

[alphaa10-2009]

The American Free Market Is Not Free-- 2

If the market is not the finger of God but the grubby and self-destructive hand of man, all his faults and ignorant, primitive and selfish impulses are written large across the rest of society.

Market mechanics are not holy writ, nor an abstrusely technical "black box" for economic high priests only, but the politics of power for the sake of profit and more power. Our last 30 years of crime and turbulence in the investment markets offers abundant proof.

Since the GOP call for deregulation in 1980''s and 1990''s, we have endured a series of plagues from withdrawal of regulatory controls and limits on financial and commodities markets. In the "greed is good" decade, we saw insider trading scandals erupt with regularity from the likes of Milken and Boesky. In the 1990''s, the deregulation of banking mutated into Neil Bush (brother of George Bush) and the Silverado scandal, costing taxpayers up to a $1 billion in bailout funding. In the late 1990''s, while the GOP held federal regulatory oversight captive, we saw Enron rear its ugly head, and then collapse a few years into the Bush term, taking investors and retirement funds with it.

(See "The American Free Market Is Not Free-- 3")

[alphaa10-2009]

The American Free Market Is Not Free-- 3

Some newer areas are still almost entirely without regulation, and others have scaled back or dropped time-tested and prudent rules. The result in too many cases is the same-- the law of the jungle prevails, and deceit and fraud run rampant. Not only professional market players are hurt, but retirement funds and individual Americans by the millions.

After three decades of such foolishness, promoting the interests of a tiny minority of very wealthy investors, it is time to call the fire department. We need desperately a wise and humane regulation of a market that manifestly is not a force of nature, but a very arbitrary and self-serving convention in the hands of far too few.

Only when the American market serves and protects the investment of all Americans equally will this country realize its promise. Until then, the American free market is not free.

[slim1h2o]

Face it, as long as there are sociopaths who think causing suffering is fun, more and more of these rituals will be consigned to the past.

Posted by brianbwb at 08:38 AM : Jul 03, 2008

So,,are we really free then? I say no!

[observer2020]

DaVicar2--Ditto!

[acolton1]

I live in Kansas City and the fireworks tents and stores are FULL OF FIREWORKS. There is no shortage of fireworks in KC & the River Front Festival is going to be FANTASTIC.

[brianbwb-2009]

"We can''''t even have water balloons at our parade in our town because of some sissy whinebags crying about getting wet. On top of that they can''''t throw candy out they parade people have to hand it out so nobody gets hurt from a flying tootsie roll. What a joke!" Posted by whiskyrocker

I understand your frustration, but it has happened that some idiots occasionally thought it might be nice to urinate into balloons, and have you ever been hit in the eye by a flying tootsie roll? It probably hurts a good bit. Chipped razor blades inserted into caramel apples is a traditional classic Halloween treat, as is rat poisoned popcorn.

Face it, as long as there are sociopaths who think causing suffering is fun, more and more of these rituals will be consigned to the past.

[whiskyrocker]

Our country into a bunch of scared people living in thin shells afraid of everything. We can''t even have water balloons at our parade in our town because of some sissy whinebags crying about getting wet. On top of that they can''t throw candy out they parade people have to hand it out so nobody gets hurt from a flying tootsie roll. What a joke!