Police and fire departments will start special patrols in the Sacramento region next week. They will try to stop the sale and use of illegal fireworks like cherry bombs, roman candles and bottle rockets.
Mark Harri with the Sacramento Police Department bomb squad says those fireworks typically are bought in counties of neighboring states where non-safe-and-sane fireworks are legal.
“The harm in an M-80 or some kind of cardboard tube device like this is that it has a lot of flash powder in it and it can create a lot of damage,” he says.
Besides the risk of personal injury, the California State Fire Marshall’s office says illegal fireworks caused $1.5 million in property damage around July 4th last year.
Cal Fire says it has already seized 150,000 pounds of illegal fireworks this year. That is about three times the amount of fireworks seized all of last year.
These are examples of the legal fireworks sold at more than 400 fireworks stands in the Sacramento region this year:
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