Despite Concerns, Council Votes to Approve Safe-and-Sane Fireworks

The Fourth of July will be a bit flashier this year in Dixon. Last night the Dixon City Council voted to approve the sale and use of Safe-and-Sane, or state-approved fireworks, within the city limits. In doing so, it became only the second city in Solano County, alongside Rio Vista, to allow the sale and use of fireworks.

The vote passed by a 3-2 margin with council members Dane Besneatte and Thom Bogue and Vice Mayor Michael Ceremello voting in favor of the fireworks, and Councilman Rick Fuller and Mayor Jack Batchelor voting against them.

The change in the city ordinance that bans Safe-and-Sane fireworks doesn’t come without provisions – the council voted to allow the sale of the fireworks under a two-year pilot program.

At the end of the two years, city staff is expected to present the council with the results of the program – including how much money was generated by nonprofit groups selling the fireworks as well as the city, how many illegal fireworks were confiscated by authorities and whether or not the fireworks contributed to any fires.

The motion to lift the ban on Safe-and-Sane fireworks, said to have been put in place during the 1970s at the behest of then-Fire Chief Bill Fairfield, came under strong opposition from Dixon Fire Chief Aaron McAlister and Division Chief/Fire Marshal Greg Lewis, as well as fire chiefs from throughout Solano County who are members of the Solano County Fire Chiefs Association.

“As your fire marshal … it just goes against my grain to approve this,” Lewis told the council.

Lewis said that the ban on fireworks was placed because of an uptick in fires that occurred around the Fourth of July because of the use of fireworks. He told the council that during the 1970s, four fires – three residential roof fires and a barn fire – were attributed to fireworks.

He also told the council that the risk of injury is high, especially among children, who use the fireworks. He used the example of a Sparkler – a fireworks that emits sparks when lit and is now considered illegal in California according to fireworks lobbyist Dennis Revell.

“The sparklers that we are handing to our kids burn somewhere between 1,200 and 1,800 degrees,” he told the council. “They call these the Safe-and-Sane firework but kids wave them around, they throw them.”

Fire Chief McAlister joined Lewis in his opposition to the lifting of the ban.

“As you know, fire prevention is an integral part of what we do with the fire department,” he told the council “We have 18 members of the fire department who have spent a career teaching children not to play with matches and this, again, goes against that.”

McAlister and Lewis said the if the council approves the lifting of the ban, it would pave the way for dangerous fireworks to enter the city, such as M-80s, bottle rockets and firecrackers, making it difficult for firefighters to prevent fires. They also said that the decision could impact surrounding counties, by causing a rise in the overall use of fireworks in neighboring cities.

But at the same time, McAlister told the council that the department would establish a program that will be in compliance with the council’s decision and keep the city safe.

Several members of the community spoke at last night’s council meeting, including lobbyists for the Safe-and-Sane fireworks industry.

Dennis Revell, who represents American Promotional Events who is the lead wholesale distributor of state-approved fireworks, told the council that there are multiple revenue-generating opportunities for both nonprofit agencies and the city.

He also said that fines allowed under a senate bill, SB 839, would prevent the use of illegal or “dangerous fireworks” within the city because of the hefty fines allowed under the bill.

Revell and other lobbyists at last night’s meeting – which included a former Sacramento City Fire Department chief, Julius Cherry, who is a consultant to the fireworks industry and Nick Gilbert, account manager for Phantom Fireworks based in Sacramento – vowed to work with Dixon’s fire and police departments as well as non profit groups to come up with ways to educate the public and find ways to maximize profits for the city and nonprofit groups.

Public comment on the matter was both for and against the sale and use of Safe-and-Sane fireworks, and some who were opposed to the fireworks had stated that they, as children, used to light the fireworks around the Fourth of July.

Dave Scholl, publisher of , told the council that he used to sell Safe-and-Sane fireworks while living in Wyoming.

“Each year, we did the Safe-and-Sane fireworks, in all those years, there was 10 years, there were no injuries,” he said.

Russ Cayler, a longtime Dixon resident, told the council “I loved fireworks,” and that he used to light them as a child. But at the same time he told the council that it was wet during the Fourth of July in Iowa where he used to light them. In Dixon, Fourth of July is dry and hot, he said. 

“There is still a lot of shake shingle roofs in this town, there are a lot of crops that are going to become very ripe and very dry and very tender,” Cayler said. “Nonprofit groups I think would be well-advised to stay away from this because of the things that could happen, they are going to be blamed for it.”

Former Chief Fairfield also spoke to the council.

“I am responsible for the ordinance to ban fireworks in the city,” he said.

Fairfield said that the three roof fires and the barn fire were just a sprinkling of the amount of fires his crews saw because of fireworks in the city. He also said that the city saw illegal fireworks year after year in the city because of the Safe-and-Sane fireworks.

“Believe me … we had it here in Dixon,” he said. “We had so much illegal stuff when we proposed this ban you wouldn’t believe it”

Vacaville Fire Chief, Brian Preciado – president of the Solano County Fire Chiefs Association – echoed Fairfield, McAlister and Lewis’ comments to the council in a letter he wrote that was presented to the council.

“All members of our association are very concerned and unanimously agreed that we share with you our ardent opposition to this issue,” the letter said. “The vast majority of our cities and the county areas do not allow such.”

Councilman Bogue said: “It does concern nonprofits. We are telling the nonprofits that we are going to cut their funds. I have also used the Safe-and-Sane ones prior to them being illegal and yes we did have a blast with them, not literally.”

Bogue proposed the two-year pilot program as a trial run for the sale and use of the fireworks. Councilman Besneatte agreed with Bogue.

“I just think that partially what Councilmember Bogue said, a two-year pilot program is not so grievous that we can’t undo something,” he said. “I would hope that the people in this town remain responsible as I think that this is community is a very, very involved community.”

Councilman Fuller said: “It is an enforcement issue, at night, after it starts. And it requires a great degree of enforcement. If we are not prepared with the enforcement part of this, we are going to be handed our heads come the Fourth (of July). I am not in favor at this time because I think it’s a haphazard way of dealing with it.”

Fuller said that when he was undersheriff for Solano County Sheriff’s Department, the department would form a taskforce that would patrol the county for illegal fireworks. For the deputies, it was hard to tell if the fireworks were of the Safe-and-Sane variety or dangerous ones, he said.

“I am not going to support simply because it goes against the grain,” he said.

Councilman Ceremello likened the debate over Safe-and-Sane fireworks to the recent council decision to uphold the in Dixon.

“I’d hate to see Safe-and-Sane fireworks come in because it’s a gateway to the illegal one,” he said, tongue planted firmly in check.

Carmelo said “I think we should be able to handle something like this,” adding that he would like to tap the fireworks industry representatives to help the Dixon’s police and fire departments with the ordnance.

“I just think the point of this is, it’s an issue of freedom and freedom to choose,” he said.

Mayor Batchelor was the last one to speak at the council meeting.

“ Safe-and-Sane fireworks is an oxymoron,” he said, adding that a friend of his sustained third-degree burns because of fireworks.

He also said that he did not see any nonprofit groups, the groups that would benefit from the sale of Safe-and-Sane fireworks, speaking at the meeting.

The motion carried, nonetheless, paving the way for Dixon to having the state-approved fireworks.