Since any of us can remember, Americans have celebrated Independence Day by launching fireworks. In Toledo, however, the legality of shooting off fireworks can be a tricky proposition.
Small pyrotechnics that produce colored smoke, or just make a loud bang, are easy to come by, but obtaining consumer-grade fireworks—formally called Class 1.4G fireworks—such as bottle rockets, cherry bombs or Roman candles, is a hassle.
Most Toledoans intent on buying fireworks that pack a bigger bang know they can drive a few miles north into Michigan, where Class 1.4G pyrotechnics are readily available. Uncle Sam’s fireworks, right across the state line off US 23 in Ottawa Lake, MI, is one example.
Notable for its towering Uncle Sam statue, the store sells popular and colorful explosives to Ohio buyers. But Ohioans who transport their fireworks back across state lines without a proper license are breaking the law.
Fire up north
Fire up north “We stress safety first,” insisted Bob Smith, an Uncle Sam’s clerk. When asked if he would sell fireworks to an Ohio customer, he sidestepped the question but pointed out that Uncle Sam’s has never been cited by a fire marshal for selling to an out-of-state customer. There is no special paperwork required to buy a firework in Michigan. Smith said not all Ohioans go out of state to buy their fireworks.
“That’s kind of a misconception,” he said. “You can buy consumer grade fireworks in Ohio.”
He’s right.
According to the Ohio Revised Code, “A licensed manufacturer or licensed wholesaler selling 1.4 G fireworks under this division shall require the purchaser to complete a purchaser’s form.” This form, a short legal document that requires a driver’s license number, amounts to a promise that the consumer will take the fireworks out of Ohio within 48 hours. Breaking that promise could result in being charged with a misdemeanor.
A spokesman for the Toledo Police Department, however, said the enforcement of fireworks regulations falls on fire marshals, not the police.
Ohio is a low-power-fireworks island surrounded by states that allow sales of consumer-class fireworks. But there are loopholes.
For this article, an individual purchased a Class 1.4G firework—a small pack of mortars—from a fireworks store in the Toledo suburb of Holland. The fireworks seller declined to comment for the article, but when the mortars were purchased a copy of the state-mandated purchase form was provided.
When the firework was launched, it detonated safely on flat asphalt, spraying nineteen little red fireballs into the air. In an instant, they dissolved into ash and smoke.
Unimpressive display
The overall fireworks experience could be described as unimpressive—unworthy of all this confusing, loosely enforced legislation. The legal loopholes on the sales, purchase and use of fireworks feel more like armchair moralizing than any genuine assurance of safety.
Fireworks pose an inherent safety risk, but they’re also inherently American, and their place in celebrating Independence Day isn’t changing anytime soon. The present laws have done a good job of confusing the general population in terms of how to obtain fireworks, but are they really effective in keeping fireworks out of our hands? Apparently not.
