Fireworks Now Banned In Falls Church | News

FALLS CHURCH, Va.  (WUSA) - "It's the Fourth of July.  It's what people do," said Chris Bowers, who is standing behind a fireworks stand at Loemann's Plaza in Falls Church.   The Falls Church area of Fairfax County, that is.  

Since the ban in Falls Church City recently went into effect, it's be illegal for Bowers to sell any of his fireworks, including sparklers, there.

"You definitely to watch kids when they have sparklers," said Bowers.

Problem is, not everybody watches close enough.  

In 2009, U.S. hospitals emergency rooms treated about 8,800 people for fireworks related injuries, according to the National Fire Protection Association. 

Forty percent of those injured were children, and sparklers account for about 32 percent of all fireworks injuries. 

"Sparklers burn at 1,200 degrees.  We don't let our children play with boiling water, yet we give them a sparkler on the Fourth of July," said Tom Polera, Fire Marshal for the City of Falls Church.  

Every year, fireworks also cause about 18,000 fires, including 1,300 structure fires.  In 2010, a home in Centreville was gutted by fire after hot, spent fireworks were placed in an empty  plastic bucket on the wooden porch.   They melted the bucket, which lit some cans of bug spray on fire, which caught the porch on fire.

 When the city recently created it's position of Fire Marshal (it previously relied on Arlington County services), it also adopted a fire code and included a ban on all commercial fireworks.  

In the City of Falls Church, the possession, manufacture, storage, sale, or unauthorized use of fireworks are illegal.

"There are people who ruin if for the rest of us because they don't use common sense," said Leslie Byrne of Fairfax County who was buying some fireworks with her husband Larry. 

"Our grandchildren love them," Byrne said.    Her husband described how he has all the children sit a considerable distance away while they watch as he lights them off. 

"We don't do sparklers, too dangerous to have little kids running around holding them," Larry Bryne said.

The city of Alexandria also bans all fireworks.   For  a complete guide of what's legal and what's not in the Washington Metropolitan area, click here.