Hourly Update

Few Arizona communities ban holiday fireworks shows

With the exception of a handful of communities, Arizona's dry and hot conditions haven't stopped most towns and cities from planning July Fourth fireworks shows Tuesday night. Sedona - just outside Oak Creek Canyon where a wildfire had threatened homes and some businesses last month - and Flagstaff will not hold fireworks displays because of severe fire danger, officials said Monday. And Black Canyon City as well as Summerhaven on Mount Lemmon northeast of Tucson never have fireworks shows because traditionally they remain too vulnerable to fire this time of year, fire officials said. But in locales from Lake Havasu City to Bisbee and Yuma to St. Johns, the shows will go on. A number of communities will take advantage of natural or manmade landmarks, including lakes and copper tailings, setting off fireworks above them to minimize the dangers of spot fires from falling sparks or embers, officials said. For example, a show will light up the night skies over Tempe Town Lake. "We're very lucky in the sense that we have ours right over the lake, and any vegetation that would even be close, we have fire apparatus assigned close to the lake," said Mike Reichling, Tempe's senior fire inspector. "The majority of the fallover is over the water." Another lake setting over which fireworks will occur is Lyman Lake State Park near St. Johns, in northeastern Arizona. "We are going ahead with the fireworks on the fourth," said spokeswoman Linda Matthews. "We do shoot them off over a lake, and we are high desert, with limited vegetation around here. We are not under any fire restrictions." A colorful display will be set off over Lake Havasu, city fire marshal Chip Shilosky said. "Barring any wind conditions, we hope to show to go on." But officials there will have to contend with visitors who have bought fireworks from states where they are legal. The fire danger is "fairly subdued" in the Prescott Valley area, where the wildland fire danger has eased in recent days from extreme danger to moderate after some significant rain, said Battalion Chief Pruett Small. "We're in a pretty good place where the wildland fire danger is concerned." Bisbee Fire Capt. Bob Sanders said the mile-high southeastern Arizona city will go ahead with its plans to shoot off its fireworks above the manmade tailing dumps from Phelps Dodge Corp.'s Lavender Pit. "There's very little debris that would go anywhere but the dumps," he said. Fireworks are simply not an issue in Black Canyon City, where there is never a Fourth of July display simply because of dry conditions, district spokeswoman Elaine Caldwell said. "It's not really banning them. It's a nonissue either way." Similarly, the community of Summerhaven situated on Mount Lemmon in the Coronado National Forest traditionally has a Fourth of July parade, but no fireworks, said Wendy Davis of the Mount Lemmon Fire District. Gary Johnson, the Sedona Fire District's fire inspector, said that for at least the third straight year, Sedona will not have a holiday fireworks show. "We do not have a safe enough spot to shoot them off," Johnson said. And in Flagstaff, a ban on charcoal fires was lifted Monday, but others, including the one issued last month that canceled holiday fireworks displays, remained in effect, said Adela Cordova of the fire department. Other communities across the state where there will be fireworks include Apache Junction, Casa Grande, Arizona City, Phoenix, Douglas, Nogales, Globe, Payson, Kingman, Tucson and Yuma. Phoenix residents will have been able to see a half-dozen fireworks shows in all from Saturday through Tuesday, with three on the holiday night, including the largest one at Steele Indian School Park. "We're still on," said Randy Ogden of the Tucson Fire Department, which has granted permits for three shows. "We will re-evaluate right up to the time of the shoot, and the chances of us canceling increase with the wind. Otherwise, things look like they're a go."