July means fireworks. But in a dry state like Utah, fireworks are only legal to set off from July 2-5 and July 22-25 for Pioneer Day. They’re also legal during New Year’s Eve and Chinese New Year’s Eve. Additionally, they are never allowed on federal lands and local restrictions vary from city to city.
Bigger cities like Ogden and Salt Lake City only allow fireworks in certain areas. Smaller municipalities with higher wildfire risks like Park City do not allow fireworks at all within their boundaries.
Whether or not fireworks are banned is all based on the weather.
“[Cities] look at the environmental conditions and what areas of their city are most at risk to get into that wildland urban interface and restrict those areas,” said Ogden Fire Marshall Kevin Brown. “Utah state law actually dictates that municipalities handle it that way.”
Brown advises anyone looking to partake in fireworks this summer to keep one basic guideline in mind: Be really careful where you set them off.
“Make sure you have an area that's safe. And know what direction those aerial fireworks are going to go and land in and it's not going to be in dry grass or brush and create a problem.”
In Ogden, the fire department has already been busy with grass fires this summer. Several, Brown said, were likely caused by careless fireworks.
“I want to say we had six on Saturday alone.”
Fireworks can also be hard on trash cans. Many of the department’s calls on the Fourth of July and Pioneer Day, Brown said, are due to people who improperly dispose of fireworks and return to find a literal dumpster fire.
“It seems like every year we go to a garbage can fire that’s crawled up the side of the house, got into the eaves, and it can create a big issue.”
To be safe, you should thoroughly soak any spent fireworks in water before throwing them away.
There’s also another factor people should know about.
According to research from Brigham Young University, Wasatch Front air quality gets measurably worse when people set off fireworks around the Fourth of July and Pioneer Day.
Lead researcher and geology professor Greg Carling said what started as a research project focused on the effect of dust storms on air quality morphed into something else.
“What really surprised us was that fireworks also have a huge impact on air quality,” he said.
“Fireworks are just kind of short-lived events. You might think they would just kind of wash through the system wouldn't show up but it clearly showed up every July — we'd see this spike in metal concentrations on our filters.”
The smoke from fireworks also contains high levels of barium and copper and both were prevalent in air quality readings taken during July. Prolonged exposure can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular issues.
There could be longer-term consequences than just air quality, too.
“The metals that are contained in that particulate matter may end up in our soils, in our crops, in our water,” he said. “So these metals are persistent in the environment.”
To be safe, Carling recommends staying upwind of any fireworks, only attending professional fireworks displays or ditching explosions altogether and seeking out alternatives like Salt Lake City’s July 5 drone show instead.
For a list of fireworks restrictions in your area, contact your local fire department, visit the Utah Fire Marshall’s website or check the state’s fire and fireworks restrictions map.
“We do have fireworks calls kind of throughout the month of July,” Brown said. “We tend to find that as long as they're for sale, people will light them.”