Washington police issue several firework warnings

WASHINGTON — In the first year of Washington’s new firework ordinance, Police Chief Jim Lester said the department responded to 38 violation complaints from June 29 to July 6.

Lester said the ordinance, which prohibits all firework launches in city limits any day of the year, was met with confusion.

“The ordinance is new. There’s also, I believe, some confusion between the city ordinance and the county ordinance,” he said. “The county ordinance does allow a few days for fireworks to be used, and if people aren’t checking in the right locations for their information, they don’t realize.”

Lester said the department had yet to issue a fine for ordinance violations, which are a simple misdemeanor with a fine of up to $250 according to a city newsletter.

“A lot of the people that I encountered on these calls weren’t aware of the ordinance,” Lester said. “It was a lot of public education. This is the first year that there have been no fireworks at all allowed. We were taking more of a warning type approach, and the majority of people did take our advice and followed the ordinance after they were made aware.”