Despite rules against fireworks, Bend residents blow stuff up on July 4

Published 4:15 pm Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Fireworks are banned in Bend. Aerial fireworks are illegal in Oregon.

Yet city residents blew up a lot of stuff in recent weeks. So much stuff, that their Fourth of July revelry generated hundreds of fireworks complaints.

But only one citation.

Bend Police received at least 132 complaints about fireworks from June 23 through July 5. In addition, the Deschutes County dispatch center received 234 calls complaining about fireworks from June 30 through July 4. The citation on June 29 was of a man who allegedly showed off his $1,000 illegal firework stash on Facebook and TikTok videos.

Other than that, Bend Police did not issue additional citations due to holiday fireworks, Bend Police spokeswoman Sheila Miller said Wednesday.

Police are investigating one case where someone reportedly shot off M-80 fireworks in the middle of a large crowd gathered for the “Freedom Ride” at Pioneer Park on July 4. (These inch-long and red fireworks, often called Cherry Bombs or Salutes, were originally made by the U.S. military to simulate explosives, but were made illegal by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the 1970s.)

However, each time police responded to these complaints, officers couldn’t find anything, and moved on to “more pressing issues,” Miller said.

Most of the complaints, which residents emailed to the department over the holiday weekend, were about aerial fireworks or mortars, which are often acquired from other states because they’re outlawed in Oregon. Many voiced concerns for their frightened animals or children who couldn’t sleep. Others were concerned about the risk of fires.

One person wrote to the department saying their neighbors’ fireworks were setting off car alarms, adding: “I have work in the morning as I’m sure a lot of people around here do.”

Another person wrote that fireworks in their neighborhood were “raining debris into my backyard and onto my canvas canopy top.” Still another wrote that aerial fireworks nearly caught nearby trees on fire.

“So frustrating that there is nothing we can do,” one person wrote. “It is out of control!”

The Bend City Council banned the sale, possession and use of fireworks within city limits in October 2021. Violators face a maximum fine of $750.

Even the sanctioned local fireworks show started three fires on Pilot Butte, as happens practically every year. The fires burned two juniper trees, some grass and brush, damaging about a quarter acre, said Dan Derlacki, Bend’s deputy fire marshal.

The fires “didn’t threaten anything, but it did take a couple hours to get fire crews to get them completely put out and cold to the touch,” Derlacki said.

During Tuesday’s show, Bend Fire & Rescue stationed 26 firefighters, four trucks and two crews of people armed with shovels at the foot of the butte.

Derlacki described setting Pilot Butte on fire as an “age-old tradition” that often sparks cheers from the hundreds of people who gather to watch the annual fireworks show.

“It is actually pretty cool,” Derlacki said. “We can hear them. You see all the headlamps moving up around there … We take it seriously because we don’t want damage to the state park. There are a lot of people at the top, so we don’t want to have them get hurt. And we want the butte to be nice and covered in trees and vegetation for people who are walking and running up the trails.”

As Central Oregon enters wildfire season, 17 fires started from Friday through Tuesday in the region’s forests. One was caused by an abandoned campfire. The rest are being investigated, said Kaitlyn Webb, fire prevention officer with the U.S. Forest Service.

“However, we haven’t had any lightning recently, so the likelihood is that they are human caused, very much could have been preventable,” Webb said.

Webb couldn’t say whether any of the fires were started by fireworks.

The Deschutes National Forest moved to high risk of wildfire on Saturday, July 1.