Roseville's Fireworks Supercenter draws crowds with sales officially underway ahead of July 4
The countdown to the Fourth of July is officially underway, and Safe and Sane fireworks officially went on sale Sunday.
The Fireworks Supercenter in Roseville had a line of more than a hundred people waiting to make their purchase when sales began at noon.
"Today we kicked off what should be a great year because we're celebrating 250 years of America," said Matthew Oliver, who runs the Fireworks Supercenter.
For America's birthday, TNT is lowering some of its fireworks prices to be more accessible to families.
"We've seen such a great progression in fireworks. They went from snap, crackle, pop to now you have glowing orbs, laser lights. All this new technology has made the experience so much better," said Oliver.
Californians must purchase their fireworks from a sanctioned booth. The fireworks sold by them are safe, sane and given a green light by the state fire marshal.
"Those fireworks are all designed to be used in this area. They're not allowed to leave the ground," said Mark Nunez with Sacramento Metro Fire.
Metro Fire is warning that fines for illegal fireworks are starting at $1,000 this year, and for the first time, a fine will be issued for each firework that is set off, with no limit to the total citation.
"We're incorporating the use of drones again this year. You can expect to see a couple of dozen drones throughout the entire region. A lot of our law enforcement partners, they've increased the amount of drones they will be using," said Nunez.
The drones are capable of finding people using illegal fireworks and recording them. Metro Fire is already preparing for the holiday.
"On the Fourth of July itself, it's going to be a very busy, very hectic day. It's like that every year, and we do make some changes to our staffing on how we respond to incidents because we have so many of them," said Nunez.
During the last Fourth of July, Sacramento Metro Fire crews responded to 53 firework-related blazes, an 18% increase over 2024.
"California has a lot of restrictions, which is a good thing when it comes to fireworks because we know we're a fire-prone state," said Oliver.
