In 1931, a fire broke out in the northwestern Iowa town of Spencer, ravaging over 20 buildings and putting nearly 500 people out of work during the Great Depression. It's reported cause: a boy accidentally dropped a sparkler on a stack of fireworks at a general store.
After the fire, Iowa passed a statewide ban on fireworks, becoming the first state to do so. By 1953, 27 other states had followed Iowa’s lead and passed bans of their own.
This year, legislators passed a law moving things in the opposite direction. Senate File 303 says people can set off fireworks on private property on July 3, 4 and New Year’s Eve, regardless of any fireworks bans that local governments previously had.
Emergency responders in multiple cities are now preparing for an uptick in calls related to fireworks in the days around the holiday as the new law goes into effect.
“As far as the phone calls coming in, we’re going to get thousands of them. We know it,” Sgt. Paul Parizek with the Des Moines Police Department said.
Up until the law was passed, the city of Des Moines had banned the use of fireworks on private property year-round. That's aside from a brief stint in 2018 that Parizek called a monumental disaster, leading the ban to be reinstated.
Parizek said that officers have already responded to a handful of fireworks-related incidents as the new law went into effect. He said it isn't uncommon to find out that people who are being irresponsible with fireworks are using drugs and alcohol.
“We’ve got all the right pieces in place for there to be a backfire if fireworks land in the wrong spot,” Parizek said. “We’ve got residential areas where there is maybe some old construction, historic buildings, mature trees — and all of this is close together.”
Parizek said law enforcement will be focusing its efforts on the city’s public parks — where setting off fireworks is still illegal — and has put up signage to deter people from doing so.
“Over the past few years, one thing that we’ve seen grow each year is the damage done to our public parks because of fireworks,” Parizek said. “We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars of damage, and damage that has required us to close a park space for sometimes up to two weeks to make those repairs.”
Parizek advised people to think about who lives in their neighborhood when they are considering setting off fireworks on their property.
“Think about the veterans, where these loud noises might be traumatic to them because they carry some PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] from being in combat,” he said. “Or think about the small children who this might be frightening for."
Last July 4, the Des Moines police saw an overall rise in service calls by about 10%. Parizek said roughly 7% of those were high priority calls —things like shootings, domestic disputes and car crashes.
The city has been spreading the word to make sure people know what they can and can’t do under the new law.
“We want to make sure we get it out there, and we’re spreading it wide and far,” Parizek said. “We do know that it’s not going to reach everybody, and we’re going to have some surprised looks on people’s faces. But we’ll do our best to make sure we get the message across as we start getting into this.”
Cedar Rapids Fire Chief Steve Mast said his department is not changing anything operationally ahead of July 4, but his crew members are aware that this year will be different than years past.
“Some areas are very densely populated, and if you’re lighting off fireworks, it has the potential to cause problems for everyone in your neighborhood,” Mast said.
Emergency responders in both Des Moines and Cedar Rapids remain hopeful that people will act responsibly.
“The behavior of people is unpredictable at best,” Mast said. “I guess this season, we’re going to have to wait and see how people behave with the use of fireworks.”
