Council streamlines fireworks permits, adopts scientific triggers for temporary bans and retains current New Year sales hours

Pierce County modified its fireworks regulations on Feb. 4 to streamline permitting, add objective criteria for temporary orders prohibiting consumer fireworks discharge and preserve the existing retail sales hours for the New Year holiday.

Key changes adopted: - Permit application window: The county will create a longer, three-month permanent application window for each retail season (Jan. 15–April 15 for the July 4 season and Aug. 15–Nov. 15 for the New Year season). That change aims to reduce processing bottlenecks that occurred under the prior eight-week window. - Temporary bans: The Fire Prevention Bureau may rely on a National Weather Service red flag warning and/or the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center’s seven-day “significant fire potential” assessment to justify a temporary order prohibiting the discharge of consumer fireworks. Council amendment 1 added the coordination center’s assessment as an additional objective resource. - New Year sale hours: The council considered a proposal to extend retail sales of consumer fireworks for New Year’s by one hour (to 9 p.m.) but adopted an amendment (amendment 2) to retain the existing hours (no extension). The amendment passed on a roll-call division 4–2; the final ordinance passed 6–0.

Andrea Kelly, council staff, summarized the proposal as administrative and said the Department of Emergency Management’s Fire Prevention Bureau recommended approval. Fire Marshal Ken Rice explained that the prior process required field deployment and manual moisture measurements; the revised approach relies on publicly available, scientific warnings and fire-potential assessments and will allow the county to target responses by area when necessary. Rice said the expanded application window will reduce permit-processing pressure and that recent administrative improvements — including adding risk-management review inside the permitting system and the use of electronic inspection forms — have already reduced inspection time.

Council debate covered public-safety concerns, nonprofit fund-raising that depends on fireworks sales, and the balance between public safety and business opportunity. Council member Jensen said he could not support expanding sale hours because of noise, wildfire and public-health concerns; Council member Kuber opposed the amendment to retain longer sale hours and argued it would help nonprofits and legal vendors. A later public comment from Randy Curley, area manager for TNT Fireworks, expressed industry support for the administrative changes and said the longer application windows would help vendors manage permitting.

The ordinance (O2024-573S as amended) was adopted following the amendment votes. The fire marshal and emergency management staff said they will coordinate public notification if a temporary order is issued and rely on the county communications office and the emergency management public information officer for outreach.