Illegal fireworks on the Fourth of July lead to injuries & citations in Santa Maria

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - Thousands of illegal fireworks lit up the Santa Maria sky during a very active Fourth of July holiday weekend.

"It was extremely busy," said Jim Austin, Santa Maria Fire Marshal. "There were tens of thousands of illegal launches of fireworks."

According to Austin, the fire department responded to 63 calls for service on the Fourth of July and up to 60 citations were handed out, which carry a $1,000 fine.

"We had four (fire) inspectors and we had four police officers," said Austin. "The police officers were teamed with the four inspectors, but their end of watch was at 10 p.m. Then we pared down the inspectors into teams of two. I was also out on that night as a single resource."

Austin also reported there were multiple injuries sustained over the weekend, including one incident that resulted in the loss of fingers.

"I know of five calls that we responded to that were related to injuries, but each call had a different level of injuries," said Austin. "I do know, without going into great detail, that at least one injury an individual lost fingers."

For the fifth straight year, the city also used a high-altitude aircraft with video and GPS technology as an addition enforcement operation.

Due to the nature of the aerial operation, the Fire Department said it will take several days for investigations to go through the video and determine if any citations will be given out.

"Our air enforcement was in the air for almost four hours," said Austin. "They reported back to me that they got good video, but it takes about 10 to 14 days for them to process the video and break them up in the single addresses and parcels."

Austin acknowledged there are many people in the community who are frustrated by the heavy volume of illegal fireworks used annually in Santa Maria, particularly those that are extremely loud, and said Monday morning the City is working to address the issue.

"The City is giving a monumental effort to combat the illegal fireworks, said Austin. "The police department, the fire department, our code enforcement division, our city rangers, they're all out there and we are doing our best, but as everybody's aware, we are in a budget deficit and so hours and resources are limited. When you have tens of thousands of launches and a small force out there combating it, I know it's not seen by the public, but we are out there doing the best we can with the resources we have."