Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Tuesday, July 16 @ 3:16 p.m. / Emergencies, Local Government
Crescent City, Harbor Officials Form Committees Focusing on Illegal Fireworks Following July 4th Mass Casualty Incident
Crescent City and Crescent City Harbor District elected officials formed committees to address the proliferation of illegal fireworks in the community following the mass casualty incident on July 4. | Photo courtesy of Del Norte County Sheriff's Office
Previously:
• DNSO Makes Two Arrests In Connection With July 4th Fireworks Explosion
• Firework Explosion at South Beach Injures 14; Toddler In Hospital With Life-Threatening Injuries
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Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore said he didn’t want to wait to figure out how to curtail the proliferation of illegal fireworks that led to the mass casualty incident on the Fourth of July.
On Monday, Inscore said he agreed with county resident Linda Sutter that he and other officials dropped the ball when it comes to keeping the community safe, and people got hurt.
One victim, a three-year-old boy, is still in the hospital, according to his aunt, SuZanna Church, who is keeping people up to date via a GoFundMe campaign she organized.
Inscore and his colleagues Jason Greenough and Kelly Schellong said their thoughts were with “Baby B’s” family.
Inscore also appointed himself and Schellong to an ad-hoc committee focusing on illegal fireworks. They plan to include Del Norte County and the Crescent City Harbor District in their discussions as well.
“I wish we had addressed this a lot sooner,” Inscore said. “It’s a shame that a small child has to get seriously hurt.”
On Tuesday, after Crescent City Harbor District Board President Harry Adams called the Fourth of July a war zone, commissioners asked staff to look into creating an ordinance banning fireworks at the harbor.
Adams volunteered himself and appointed his colleague Gerhard Weber to an ad-hoc committee to craft an ordinance as well as to coordinate with Crescent City and Del Norte County on curtailing the flow of illegal fireworks in the community.
“I’m over these fireworks,” Adams told his colleagues. “It’s every year and it’s getting worse and worse. I realize Crescent City has a reputation of looking the other way. It’s time to look that way and stop this nonsense.”
According to Adams, while the July 4 explosion sent 14 people to the hospital, about 100 were injured.
The discussions at the Crescent City Council and the Harbor District come after the Del Norte County Sheriff’s deputies arrested two people Thursday in connection with the fireworks explosion.
According to the DNSO’s Online Information page, the suspects, 33-year-old Levi Howand-Wayne Mills and Megan Rae Warner, 32, were released on bail on Saturday and Monday, respectively.
They face a slew of charges including illegally possessing explosives, selling dangerous fireworks and willful cruelty to a child, according to the DNSO.
According to Justin Hanks, security supervisor at the Harbor District, the explosion took place about 800 yards down the beach from Anchor Way on the road side from the high water mark.
Hanks recommended not completely banning fireworks, but enforcing the laws that are already on the books.
“They’re bringing fireworks in, literally, with U-Hauls,” he said. “I'm out here by myself, there’s not a whole lot I can do. I do have some arrest authority, but there’s not much. This is where they want to come. This is the destination.”
On Monday, Crescent City Fire Chief Kevin Carey told city councilors that the battalion chief overseeing the southern section of the community, Joe Gregorio, on the scene about two minutes after the call came to 911 at about 10:25 p.m. July 4.
Gregorio was inundated with people fleeing the beach, Carey said, describing the scene as chaotic.
The volunteer fire department already had 20 people deployed that night, Carey said, and responded to the area with four completely staffed fire engines, a water tender and a utility rig. Three other battalion chiefs arrived along with Gregorio, and Carey said he was in charge with the fire and medical response while Sheriff Garrett Scott handled law enforcement.
In addition to Crescent City Fire, the California Highway Patrol, Del Norte Ambulance and CalFire responded. The Crescent City Police Department was responding to other calls, Carey said.
According to the fire chief, more than 20 firefighters were pre-deployed on the Fourth of July. He emphasized that they are volunteers and said they’re also trained to respond to similar mass casualty incidents.
“One of our newly promoted fire engineers on the first fire engine arriving on scene was literally handed that three-year-old and [asked to] help fix it,” Carey said. “I can’t say enough about how prepared our individuals are.”
According to City Manager Eric Wier, the community was packed with people celebrating. They attended the parade and the festival at Beachfront Park and watched the city’s fireworks display just before the incident at South Beach took place.
In addition to Carey and the battalion chiefs, the city’s three career fire captains also responded to South Beach, Wier said. He added that discussions will likely include additional resources emergency personnel might need on the holiday.
Though there was some discussion about response to mass casualty incidents — Councilor Isaiah Wright said he spoke with six primary care providers, none of whom knew what to do in a similar event — the City Council agreed that the issue had to do with illegal fireworks.
Inscore pointed out that Crescent City has had an ordinance on the books governing dangerous fireworks since about 2012. In California, these include firecrackers, sky rockets and rockets, Roman candles, and sparklers more than 10 inches long and one-quarter of an inch in diameter.
According to Wier’s staff report, under state law, selling, transporting or using these fireworks as well as those that don’t carry the "Safe and Sane" seal could cost the violator $50,000 as well as a jail sentence for up to one year or both.
Under the Crescent City Municipal Code, the city may levy fines against those who possess, sell, use and/or display 25 pounds or less of fireworks the State of California label as dangerous. Those fines would also be imposed if law enforcement within city limits seizes 25 pounds or less of dangerous fireworks.
Those fines range from $1,250 for the first offense, including a $250 late charge, to $4,000 for the third offense within a one-year period including a $1,000 late charge.
While he wasn’t sure what the impetus was for Crescent City’s illegal fireworks ordinance, Inscore said people complained a few years ago when Calfire helped crack down on fireworks.
“Administrative citations were handed out and a lot of people griped and complained and said, ‘this is part of our traditions here in Crescent City,’” Inscore said. “I for one said we need to crack down even more and I was told I wasn’t from here. And if it’s such a problem why hasn’t anybody gotten hurt? Well, somebody’s now got hurt. Multiple people, and so it’s time for us to take a look again at what to do.”
Inscore, who has lived in the Crescent City area for about 16 years, said the fireworks have gotten worse. He said he drove around the neighborhood at about 9 p.m. July 4 and saw people setting mortars off in the middle of the street with kids running around.
“It was frustrating. I really didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I went to bed around 10:15 — just before this incident — and my thought was if we don’t have a major incident before morning, we should consider ourselves blessed. We did, and that’s unfortunate."
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