Ohioans can buy fireworks here but they must, under current law, take them out of state to detonate them. An Ohio Senate committee has passed a bill that would change that.
Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports this bill would make it legal to buy and set off consumer fireworks in Ohio.
Back in July, Patricia Holsinger lost her Mom and Dad in a fire that ravaged their Proctorville home after it was struck by a firework. She says her Dad and a neighbor tried to fight the fire but it got out of control.
“My father went back into the house to rescue my mother who was bedridden and had been for four years due to a rare form of Parkinsons. He never made it to her room. Both of my parents died of smoke inhalation and I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye.”
Holsinger says the home burned to the ground. The use of the firework that caused the blaze is illegal under current law. But no charges were ever filed in the case because the responsible party could not be found. Several people around the area had been setting off fireworks that evening. Holsinger says this is an example of how dangerous fireworks are and she’s urging lawmakers to defeat a bill that would allow Ohioans to set off consumer grade fireworks in the Buckeye State. But Daniel Peart of the B J Alan Fireworks Company says it’s time for Ohio’s laws to change. He says his customers continually voice their displeasure and confusion about current laws that require purchasers to take the fireworks out of state immediately after purchase. But he doesn’t think this will encourage an explosion of fireworks sales in Ohio.
“I absolutely think this bill is not creating a new market and not creating a swath of new users in the state of Ohio but this is going to strengthen the users that are already in the state and this is absolutely going to help firework safety in the state of Ohio.”
Critics of this bill say it would make Ohio one of the most liberal in the country when it comes to fireworks laws.
