Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to All In Adams, the official podcast Adams County Government, where we're all in for our residents, our employees, and our community. So whether you live here, work here, or you just want to know more about what makes Adams County a great place to be, thanks for tuning in. We're all in, Adams.
Speaker: Welcome to another episode of the All in Adams podcast. My name is Carson Forsman. I'm a communications supervisor with Adams County and we have our public information officer, Sergeant Shea Haney with the Adams County Sheriff's Office in studio today.
Speaker: We're talking about fireworks. July 4th is coming up. Big topic. Fireworks are in our communities, right? It's coming, but we need to let's talk about some some good information here of what residents should know. So Um, let's first just kind of talk about this time of year, right? And what's legal versus illegal within Adams County and I guess Colorado, if you were to light off a firework, what should residents know?
Speaker: Yeah. So Adams County follows the state laws as far as the unincorporated parts. There are cities that have specific restrictions that were within Adams County. Gotcha. So folks need to know first and foremost, they have to check, Hey, are you in Westminster proper? Are you in Thornton proper? Because they have different rules. But speaking from the unincorporated side of things, which is the area of the sheriff's office patrols, um,
Speaker: If it leaves the ground, the the easiest way is if it leaves the ground, it's illegal. Um, if it's emit's a shower of sparks, it's still legal. Um, but if it's leaving the ground, if it's making a really loud, the state calls it a report, but essentially a noise, a loud noise that makes it illegal. Right. And so the ones that go up into the air, like the big sparks, those are illegal across the state. Um, regardless of if your city has a specific ban on, on fireworks.
Speaker: Gotcha. So what are the biggest fireworks related issues and incidents that the sheriff's office sees each year on this time or around July 4th? Yeah. so unfortunately we get a lot of fires, right? Which obviously would you would assume with fireworks, um but houses get caught on fire. I remember on when I was on the street bushes,
Speaker: ah trees, those types of things, because folks were using fireworks. They're going off. They don't know where they're going or they're being unsafe with them. Or sometimes they've been drinking and they're using fireworks and these things go, or they get fireworks that they don't realize, you know, are malfunctioning.
Speaker: all of a sudden they're exploding in their hands near them injury near kids and injuries so i think fires and and just the increase in calls for service that we get um around this time people were reported as you know hearing gunshots hearing fireworks people don't know the difference sometimes So they're coming in as shootings, but they're actually fireworks. And so just trying to navigate that, because obviously if it's a shooting, in any report we're going to go check out, right? Or at least we're going to send someone the area, but it's a shooting or something like that.
Speaker: That's going to get a different response from law enforcement. So folks will call in fireworks and it's firecrackers or, you know, fire they call it in as a shooting, but it's actually fireworks. Sure. Sure. So let's talk about that a little bit because, you know, ADCOM, our 911 center is getting a ton of calls on around July 4th.
Speaker: um What should residents do if they need to call in fireworks activity, illegal fireworks activity? What would you recommend they do if they need to call in and? So I would say Adcom actually has an online portal through their website.
Speaker: believe their website's adcom911.org and they have a way you can report fireworks online. So if this is just a normal complaint of, Hey, my neighbor's shooting off fireworks. Adcom covers us, Brighton, North Glen, Commerce City.
Speaker: and Yeah, I think that's it. So if you live in those areas, um you can go on to their website and report it online. Those will get funneled through the officers, but we're you're not going to tie up a 911 operator reporter making these calls because unfortunately, crime doesn't stop on July 4th. Right. Now, if somebody gets hurt or something gets laid on fire, a house on fire property, you need the fire department. You need the police to show up.
Speaker: Please call 911. If this is just, hey, my neighbors. trying report your You're trying to report your neighbor. You know, there's an online way to report We understand it's frustrating for folks, but at the same time, you know, we can't tie up because those guys are working four different cities on top of the police department and the fire department.
Speaker: So they're just getting inundated with calls over this time. And so that's why they created this online a form and it it gives you a chance to fill out all the information, send it right to them and,
Speaker: uh, they can get an officer out there if, if deemed appropriate. That's pretty slick. i didn't know they had the online option. Thanks for bringing that up. Let's, let's talk about fires for, for, for a second here with our last winter, very dry, right? Do you see that being an issue this summer as well? And just Colorado in general is dry, but we didn't really have much of a winter with fireworks.
Speaker: They're shooting off Do you see that being an issue? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it's an issue anytime, you know, around this time of year, but yeah, especially with the winter that we had, who knows, you know, if your grass green, it's still going to light on fire. Right. But if it's real dry and dead, that thing is just going to go up and then you're putting everybody ah in danger.
Speaker: if you're in a big field or, you know, even if you're on the street and you think, I'm in the middle of the road. Uh, like we said earlier, those fireworks can get tipped over. They can go, every which way you don't know which way they're going to You assume, but especially those big illegal, you know, Wyoming fireworks yeah that are shooting up into the air, you catch a tree all of a sudden it's a house and it just kind of goes from there. And what are the ramifications if something like that happened, right? Yeah, it doesn't. But if you do cause a fire, there's property damage. Like you're looking at,
Speaker: yeah i mean so you you know there's there's an illegal use of fireworks statute it's a petty offense so if you're caught using illegal fireworks you know you can be cited for that but if you light something on fire even if it's accidental you could get charged with arson which is you know depending on the level of property damage all of that is a misdemeanor or felony but it's it's something that could happen you know and obviously we don't want that to happen Um, you know, we don't understand accidents happen, but if you're an accident happens with an illegal firework, you know, we have a duty to, to enforce the law, unfortunately for, for those folks.
Speaker: What should somebody do if, if a firework malfunctions or doesn't go off as expected? So the state says to just kind of leave it and then douse it. Leave it for 15 minutes and douse it. Okay.
Speaker: And then leave it for five more minutes. Assume that it's going to relight. So if it's a dud, don't assume that it's one. um Douse it with water. And then when you're done with all your fireworks, put them in a bucket, leave them overnight.
Speaker: And then you can, you know, safely assume at that point that everything's everything is good to go and then dispose of them from there. What is the sheriff's office doing as an organization?
Speaker: you, do you have more deputies on patrol around this time or what do you guys do differently than the the dayto day to day? mean, yeah, we don't necessarily, i don't know this year that we're going to do a full enforcement period over the time, but you know, we definitely educate our deputies on what legal fireworks are versus illegal and and the proper ways to handle it. In years past, our deputies give a lot of verbal warnings.
Speaker: People usually comply with that, right? Hey, You can have these, you know, or, hey, it's two o'clock in the morning. It's time to go to bed. And we don't have a whole lot of return calls. But in in the instance that we don't or instance that we have, you know egregious offenders, the deputies will cite ah them for that illegal use of fireworks and then seize the fireworks as as evidence of that.
Speaker: We didn't talk about either how fireworks can have an effect on your pets, right? Veterans with PTSD, even just your neighbors, right? Right. I mean, what's kind of your... Yeah, no, yeah. I mean, unfortunately, you know, a lot of pets don't like these. Yeah. Veterans, I mean, you know, or might be suffering from PTSD or just don't like the banks. So people just need to be cognizant of that with their neighbors and understand that there are folks out there. There are pets out there that are struggling. I have a, I have a dog at the house that doesn't like thunder.
Speaker: It's probably going to be an awful couple of days for him with all the fireworks calling off my neighborhood, that's quite a bit of them. Um, so neighbors just need to understand that, uh, at the same time, you know, folks with, uh, pets and veterans, you know, or pets and veterans also need to realize that like,
Speaker: It's the 4th of July. Right. So there's going to be some give and take there. And so hopefully people are respectful of their neighbors, respectful of the time of day. You know, if they know of folks that are veterans or that have pets like that, just be cognizant of that when you're trying to, you know, um celebrate the 4th of July. Yeah.
Speaker: What should parents do? What should they be telling their kids over the fourth too? Right. Um, what would you tell parents? Uh, just to watch your kids. I mean, unfortunately kids will get into fireworks, you know, cause they like, we're all a kid. at Yeah. They like the big boom. They like the lights. Right. And so if you have a 12, 13, 14 year old, that's, you know, maybe not safe with the fireworks, know,
Speaker: you need to watch them. Um, I actually had a neighbor where their kid was lighting fireworks in the backyard of the house and the house was super dry and the kids were lighting fireworks. So, you know, I went over and had a conversation and just said, Hey, we need to be careful, right? My house is right here. There's other houses. It's not safe. And they stopped. Um, so people just need to watch, you know, supervise their kids, make sure they know where, the fireworks are at because even if it's something as simple as a sparkler you know if if kids aren't safe with them and they're fighting with them or they don't realize that they touch it i mean you're talking pretty decent burns that they could be subject to well we hope for a safe fourth of july for everybody in adams county is there anything else i missed fireworks that that we didn't touch on that you wanted our residents to
Speaker: No, I just, you know, we just want everyone to be safe. Right. And just take, um take precautions, celebrate the fourth. It's the 250th anniversary of our country. We want everyone to be safe, but just know, um, you know, there are, there are ways to do it in a responsible way so that, uh, we don't have to visit them and, and, and ruin their 4th of July.
Speaker: And a quick plug, there are professional shows, and you should look around your neighborhoods, too, to see if there's any other ones. But Adams County, every 3rd of July, the day before the 4th, they hold a fireworks show at Riverdale Regional Park. So definitely go check that out on the night of Friday, July 3rd.
Speaker: Sergeant Shea Haney, thanks so much. Thank you That's a wrap for this episode of All In Adams. Thank you for joining us as we explore the people, programs, and the policies that make Adams County a great place to live, work, and thrive.
Speaker: If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe and share with your friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Have a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know. We're All In for bringing you the stories that matter most.
Speaker: Until next time, take care of each other and stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor, and X. We're all in, Adams, and we're all in for you.
