By Kamira LaNay
Correspondent
Texas Metro News
Every year, there’s a story about fireworks gone wrong. They go viral on social media, turned into memes and even empower kids and young adults to mishandle fireworks. As the trend goes on, the person forgotten about is the one who loses their life behind what they could have considered “a good time.”
On August 29, 2014 two University of Texas at Arlington students were tampering with fireworks extracting the gunpowder and an explosion went off in the garage. Firefighters were sent to 6100 Block of Hedgeapple Court around 11 p.m. where 24-year-old Jared Backus was found inside the garage deceased and 23-year-old Dustin Louis was found on the lawn with second degree burns on his legs and torso.
Stories like this one are not just tragedies; they are preventable. Texas has some of the most specific fireworks laws in the country and knowing them could be the difference between a celebration and a catastrophe.
Texas Fireworks Law:
Who Regulates Fireworks in Texas
The Texas State Fire Marshal (under the Texas Dept. of Insurance) enforces all state fireworks law. Local fire marshals, sheriffs, and constables also serve as fire prevention officers in their jurisdictions
What’s Illegal
No fireworks within 600 feet of a church, hospital, school, or licensed childcare center without written permission
No fireworks fired from or at a motor vehicle
No public fireworks display without a licensed pyrotechnic operator
Fireworks cannot be sold to anyone under 16 or to an intoxicated person
No mail-order sales of consumer fireworks allowed
Penalties
Most violations are Class B misdemeanors
Minor violations (under $200 damage, no injury) are Class C misdemeanors
Violations causing injury or death are enhanced charges
Incident Reporting Requirements
Licensees must report any fireworks fire or explosion to the State Fire Marshal within 10 days. Incidents involving injury or death must be reported immediately
Public Display Insurance
Licensed public displays require a minimum of $500,000 general liability insurance policy
HOLIDAY FOR BLACKS?
While the rest of the country prepares to celebrate, Black Americans have long had a different relationship with this holiday; one that predates the fireworks, and the cookouts.
It’s not just everyday people who feel this way. Media personality and former MSNBC host Joy Reid recently said, “I can promise you, Black folks, we will take that day off, we will barbecue because we’re off, but nobody Black I know is really excited about the Fourth of July.”
Reid went on to push what Frederick Douglass said over 170 years ago, calling the holiday a celebration built on the backs of the very people now firing up the grill to observe it. She even went as far as to say Juneteenth is the real Independence Day for Black Americans because the country was never truly a democracy until slavery ended.
Yet, every July 4th, without fail, Black neighborhoods smell like charcoal and potato salad. The music is loud, the kids are running through sprinklers, and somebody’s uncle is lighting fireworks in the street. African Americans show up every single year, not because they’ve forgotten the history, but because despite it, that is still home.
Whatever the Fourth means to you this year celebration, reflection, or both may it end with everybody still standing. Know the laws. Keep your distance. Practice fireworks safely, or not at all.
