County Bans Aerial Fireworks; Cites Drought Conditions

In a unanimous 5 to 0 vote, El Paso County commissioners decided to ban aerial fireworks, amid one of the borderland’s harshest drought in years.

Due to the record-breaking drought, commissioners voted to ban aerial fireworks, less than one week after Dona Ana County commissioners made a similar announcement. With drought conditions throughout the state, the discussion to ban the potentially dangerous devices was short and to the point.

The Drought Index Map from the Texas Wildlife Service shown to commissioners had the entire borderland shaded in a bright orange color, indicating a drought index number between 600 and 700, on a scale that tops out at 800. Officials say that numbers in that range make the county “ripe” for wildfires with extreme intensity.

The vote means that the sale of fireworks for this Forth of July will not include the popular bottle rockets or any other kind of firework that has fins or whose flight is uncontrolled.

The possession of any fireworks within the city limits continues to be banned, leaving many flocking to the county’s open areas to have their fun. However this year, now that the ban has been passed, that fun will not include the most dangerous fireworks, which is just fine with county fire officials.

County Fire Marshal Chief Stephen Hoeller told ABC-7, “I have never seen it as bad as it currently is…coupled with the freeze and the damage done to the live plants that are trying to recover and then the drought conditions that are keeping everything else dry and dead, we are in a very dangerous situation.”

Chief Hoeller added that the high number of fire-related calls that his all-volunteer station in the county receives puts a huge strain on resources.

“It runs a lot of our money out for the years because we run 40 to 50 calls per station and it’s no fun for us on the Fourth of July,” he said.

In addition to the ban, county commissioners also voted to once again to close several streets in the Montana Vista area to keep the danger of non-residents lighting fireworks to a minimum.