PORT ANGELES — Exploding mortars rattled the windows in Jan Butler’s home July 5 as Fourth of July revelers lit illegal fireworks well past 3 a.m., she said.
The booms in Butler’s normally-quiet Port Angeles neighborhood were louder and more incessant this year than they’ve been since at least 2006, she added.
“This year was pretty horrible,” said Butler, who lives on South I Street.
“The concussions were horrendous.”
To find a “happy medium” between reasonable private fireworks displays and those that terrify people and pets, Butler has organized a Tuesday meeting for the public to talk about illegal fireworks and share ideas about fireworks issues.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the Carver Room of the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
Many fireworks-related topics will be addressed, including injury prevention; property damage; timber protection; loss of sleep and anxiety for young, elderly and veterans with post traumatic stress disorder; pet tranquilizing; and air, soil and water pollution, she said.
City fire and police officials will be on hand to answer questions.
“It’s an open meeting to hear what people have to say,” Butler said.
Butler said she hopes the meeting will generate new ideas for getting illegal fireworks out of neighborhoods.
“I don’t know how you police it,” she said.
Butler and others have suggested educational campaigns, an expanded public fireworks display at City Pier or allowing certain fireworks to be lit in designated areas.
Legal consumer fireworks purchased at state-licensed fireworks stands can be discharged within the Port Angeles city limits between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. on the Fourth of July.
The city of Port Townsend in Jefferson County banned consumer fireworks in 2003.
Elsewhere in both counties, legal fireworks could be lit the week of the holiday in 2014 from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., from 9 a.m. to midnight on the Fourth and from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. the following day.
Butler said she is not advocating a fireworks ban in Port Angeles.
“I don’t want to take the fun out of people’s lives out here,” she said.
“It’s just gotten kind of excessive. When it’s shaking your whole house, it’s bad.”
Butler got the attention of the Port Angeles City Council when testifying about illegal fireworks July 15.
The council agreed that illegal fireworks have become a problem in the city, with several council members sharing their own stories about loud explosions in their neighborhoods into the early morning hours of July 5.
Councilman Brad Collins said he would go as far as voting for a fireworks ban.
“I was surprised when Brad said that,” Butler said.
In 2006, Butler told the Port Angeles City Council that she watched bottle rockets fly from 13th Street onto her roof and that she would lose a 30-year-old parrot because of the stress from Fourth of July fireworks.
Butler said she hopes this Tuesday’s meeting of Concerned Citizens of Port Angeles and Clallam County for a Safer 4th of July will spawn committees that will address fireworks issues.
“Something has to change,” she said.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
