With the Pioneer Day weekend just days away, Park City Municipal has announced a fireworks ban within the city limits.
The city announced the immediate prohibition on fireworks and open-source flames on Tuesday afternoon.
Dave Thacker, who is Chief Building Official and Fire Code Official for the city, said they came to the decision, based on environmental conditions in the area—in conjunction with the County’s Fire Warden, Bryce Boyer, Park City Fire Marshall Mike Owens, Police Chief Wade Carpenter and Emergency Manager Mike McComb.
The city did not announce a ban during the Independence Day holiday. But Thacker said a hotter, drier forecast calls for strict measures.
“We’ve also been able to see from surrounding areas a lot of fires being started from fireworks and from other means that are man-made,” Thacker said. “There are not a lot of lightning starts this year. It’s fireworks. It’s firearms. It’s things that may spark fires. Some are cigarette butts that haven’t been put out completely. And so with those drier conditions and learning from what our neighboring communities have had to go through, we feel that it’s an important step to take. During the July Fourth holiday, we had still a lot of moisture in the grasses and the trees and the woods in the area that were keeping conditions in a safe zone, if you will, to allow those open flames and fireworks to take place.”
Thacker said the ban is in place indefinitely.
“What we’ll continue to do is monitor those environmental conditions and we’ll look at a reasonable time to rescind that ban. Typically and historically, we’ve lifted that ban mid- to late October. It will all be dependent upon weather patterns and how wet our fall is, or the latter part of the summer.”
