Fireworks booths are open for sale in a handful of local cities

Sales of fireworks were underway in Sonoma County on Tuesday, days away from the Fourth of July weekend and amid a historic drought that has elevated fire danger throughout the region.

Fireworks booths are being run by a variety of nonprofit groups in Sebastopol, Rohnert Park, Petaluma and, as of Wednesday, Cloverdale.

Dozens of options, from 99-cent Pop-Its to a $500, 4-foot-tall box jammed with about 120 fireworks, filled the booths. Their names, including Zombie Apocalypse and Fiery Scorpion, were as colorful as the brief shows they advertise.

“I’ve got four kids and 500 extra kids,” joked Pete Darosa of Sebastopol, who stopped at lunchtime Tuesday at the local Sea Serpents swim team booth at the north end of town. He wanted to scope out this year’s fireworks offerings for his annual neighborhood show and was eying the $500 box.

“I’ll spend $600 easy. It gets expensive,” Darosa said.

His purchase will benefit a local nonprofit organization. He had three booths to choose from in Sebastopol and almost two dozen more in the three other cities.

But those four cities are in the minority as the rest of the county and much of the North Bay region have long banned the sale and use of any fireworks, including those classified as “safe and sane.”

“Don’t buy them. Don’t use them,” Cal Fire Capt. Joe Fletcher said. “Go to the fireworks events.”

Darosa said he conducts his fireworks show on concrete and always keeps a fire extinguisher nearby.

Safety also was important to Sebastopol resident Jeremy Mace, who on Tuesday spent almost $250 on fireworks at the VFW booth at the south end of town. He said he’s cleared vegetation, put in crushed rock and has ample water from a pond, a pool and a tank, along with a fire hose, just in case.

Santa Rosa’s fireworks ban came in 2004, fueled by a 42-acre grass fire that destroyed a $750,000 home, threatened other homes and injured firefighters. The 2003 fire was set off by teens using “safe and sane” fireworks.

Fireworks always raise fire concerns, but this week’s searing temperatures, afternoon breezes and drought-dried hillsides, brush and tree stands have raised the stakes, fire officials said.

Statewide, Cal Fire firefighters in six months have responded to about 2,800 wildland fires, compared with about 2,150 in the same six months last year, according to state statistics.

In the greater North Bay region, several fires have so far stayed relatively small, although homes and barns have been lost. A Tuesday afternoon fire burned 12 acres of grass on Sonoma Mountain east of Petaluma.

Now, with a long fire season ahead and the drought entrenched in its fourth year, fire prevention officers from several agencies said the risk from fireworks is great. They are pushing even harder than usual for people to go to organized fireworks shows, which also benefit local nonprofit groups, and skip the home shows.

In Sonoma County, there are many options to catch an eye-popping pyrotechnics show, often accompanied by soul-stirring music. There will be four major fireworks shows Friday night and six Saturday night.

In Rohnert Park, Petaluma and Cloverdale, fireworks can be fired up on Saturday only. In Sebastopol, city leaders allow them to be set off for the week leading up to the holiday.

Sebastopol Fire Chief Bill Braga said he’s “on pins and needles” this week. But his heightened concern stemmed from weather reports calling for extra-hot weather - not from fireworks.

“We don’t have fireworks problems,” Braga said Tuesday. “Is it inevitable? Probably - over the years. But we just don’t have the fires other departments have had.”

Fire officials in the no-fireworks zones talked of their no-tolerance attitudes and said they’ll be watching and on patrol, ready to hand out citations if necessary and confiscate what they find.

Based on experience, officials said, they expected to hear from worried residents who will report neighbors firing aerial fireworks and risking a community’s fire safety.

Capt. Fletcher, who works out of Cal Fire’s St. Helena station, said the Fourth of July patrol duty is a dreaded assignment.

“It’s an awful job,” Fletcher said. “You feel so unpatriotic while you’re doing it. You go there, people are drinking. It’s very negative, but it has to be done.”

The aerial rockets already are being launched.

Monday afternoon, in the heat of the day, Santa Rosa firefighters responded to a spot fire off Fulton Road that was not believed to be caused by fireworks. While they were there, though, someone nearby set off a bottle rocket or similar airborne firework.

It didn’t cause a fire, but the reaction by firefighters was akin to “Are you kidding me?” Battalion Chief Ken Sebastiani said.

In Santa Rosa, Assistant Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal warned residents of $500 citations for those caught using “safe and sane” fireworks and up to a $1,000 citation and possible arrest for those using more dangerous fireworks.

In Petaluma, city officials allow legal fireworks on the valley floor only, not in neighborhoods along the west side’s rolling hills.

Rohnert Park Public Safety Sgt. Jeff Nicks said all the city’s police officers, who double as firefighters, will be on duty to watch for illegal fireworks.

“We have no tolerance for illegal fireworks,” Nicks said.

Mace, the Sebastopol man who was shopping at the VFW stand, said his home fireworks were a chance to relive the fun of being a kid on the Fourth of July.

“I got quite a bit of fireworks and quite a bit of safety at the property to make sure it goes well,” Mace said. “I love doing it and love watching the kids. It brings me back to my childhood.”

Click here for a list of events throughout the county on both days.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rossmannreport.