Santa Maria to use aerial surveillance to determine location of illegal fireworks launches

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - For the third straight year, the City of Santa Maria will use aerial surveillance technology to help locate people who are launching illegal fireworks.

To help combat the growing use of illegal fireworks, Santa Maria has deployed a high-altitude aircraft with video and GPS technology to determine accurate launch locations.

"It can absolutely pinpoint an actual exact address and also the the assessor parcels number," said Santa Maria Fire Marshal Jim Austin. "The program has the capability to zero in to exact addresses and assessor parcels number. It also has the capabilities of identifying individuals. It's not as clear as it would be during the daytime, but it also has night time vision, and we can identify the individuals, partaking in the illegal activity."

Last year, Santa Maria issued 22 citations for the use of illegal fireworks, with 11 of those attrtibuted to the use of the aerial technology.

This year, with clearer weather in the forecast than last year's cloudy Fourth of July, the hope is the technology will be even more successful in determining launch locations.

"Weather was a factor last year," said Austin. "This year, we're going to be doing the same thing. We will have an aircraft up in the air, and this year, the weather is very favorable. As everybody's been listening, I'm sure that we're kind of heading into a heatwave, and that typically gives us clear weather throughout the night, so the aircraft will be up in the air as long as we need it to be, and we are gathering evidence of illegal fireworks."

For those who are caught using illegal fireworks, they may receive a citation with a maximum penalty of $1,000.

"We want people to know that we are out there and we are enforcing," said Austin. "We gained a lot of knowledge last year with the air operations. I'm confident it'll be more successful this year. I also want people to know that we will be actively enforcing on the ground, with the Police Department, City Rangers and Code Enforcement. And, this year, we have favorable weather, and I'm confident with the things we learned from last year that we will be even more successful."

Austin added the the risks for using illegal fireworks goes far beyond a citation and monetary fine.

In addition to being a nuisance to many veterans, animals, and people with noise sensitivity, he pointed out the dangers are significant and potentially life-changing.

"They are dangerous," said Austin. "If you have a firework that doesn't operate appropriately, the dangers could be anywhere from you lose your fingers to it could kill you. A lot of these are small bombs, and when they explode and fail, if you're close enough to them, your going to receive injuries, whether that's a thermal burn or it actually takes some part of your body off."