Fireworks fill the sky above Pilot Butte during the Fourth of July celebration in 2013. (Bulletin file)

Sheesh we were wrong. We were wrong to be worried the days around Fourth of July were going to be quiet, with the Bend firework ban in place.

No thundering in the night’s stillness.

No pets huddled in fear.

No tests of the Bend’s police or fire departments ability to respond.

Could there be anything less American?

We knew we could count on the official displays. What would the freelancers do? 

Scofflaws of Bend came through, supplying about the same level of noise and potential injury and destruction as post-ban usual. Nothing like it used to be.

The Bend police department told us it had about 80 emailed complaints during the week of the Fourth, with the bulk of them coming on the Fourth. Eleven complaints made their way into the dispatch system, called CAD for short. 

“Generally, on the Fourth of July, unless the fireworks complaint shares clear information that there’s a threat to life or property (beyond just shooting fireworks in the air), the caller is transferred to a prerecorded message that suggests people email the fireworks email….,” Sheila Miller, Bend police’s communications manager, told us in an email. “Why a fireworks complaint ends up in CAD depends on the dispatcher. For example, one of the ones that made it into the call screen on the Fourth was people shooting fireworks at passing cars.”

Bend police issued zero citations. That may seem like a lower number than it should be. Callers may not know where a firework originated. People don’t tend to be forthcoming about who lit it, if officers do make it to the right spot. And police and fire departments are also staging for a big incident on top of everything else they normally do. 

Redmond Spokesman Editor Tim Trainor recently asked Gov. Tina Kotek if she thought it was time for a statewide ban on fireworks – other than professional displays, of course. 

“I do think we have to have a conversation in the state about how we keep our communities safe, particularly around the use of fireworks,” she said. “We might be getting to that stage where more communities of certain sizes and certain locations have to go to restricting the use. Sometimes, a statewide ban could be helpful…. Given the state of our wildfires we have to have a conversation about how to keep our communities safer.”

Bans won’t stop everybody. They do help. Tell Gov. Kotek what you think. You can contact her here: tinyurl.com/TellGovKotek