Fourth of July Fizzle: Fewer Fireworks Reach City

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The New York Sun

This Fourth of July may be one of New York City’s quietest, with increased police enforcement cracking down on fireworks dealers, and the price of fireworks soaring due to rising transport costs, a weakened dollar, and limited imports from China, sources say.

Commissioner Raymond Kelly yesterday said the number of incidents of people smuggling and selling illegal fireworks in the city is declining.

“We see signs that the problem may have abated,” Mr. Kelly said.

In many cases, police monitor buyers who travel to out-of-state fireworks retailers — most often in Pennsylvania or Delaware — and arrest them as they re-enter the city. On Wednesday, police arrested six people carrying $2,000 worth of illegal fireworks after they crossed the George Washington Bridge following a visit to a Phantom Fireworks store in eastern Pennsylvania.

Department statistics show that police this year have seized 218 cases of illegal fireworks, compared with 619 last year and 1,353 in 2006. They have arrested 64 people this year for illegally dealing fireworks, which is a misdemeanor.

In addition to having to evade police enforcement, dealers of illegal fireworks this year must deal with price increases of up to 30%, firework retailers said. And that doesn’t include the increased cost of paying for the gas to take dealers across state borders.

“This is the single most dramatic price increase that I’ve seen in my 15 years in the business,” the vice president of Phantom Fireworks, William Weimer, said.

Mr. Weimer said that a combination of increasing transportation costs and material costs, the decrease in the dollar’s value, and recent problems in the Chinese fireworks business has increased his company’s prices by 15%.

The executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, Julie Heckman, said that following a February 14 explosion that destroyed 20 fireworks warehouses in China, only the port of Beihai will export fireworks to America. Other ports that would consider changing their export policies will soon be closed for the Olympics and will not reopen until the fall.

The lack of ports “created a backlog,” Ms. Heckman said. “We’re still 10% to 15% behind in what we hoped would reach the U.S. by the Fourth of July.”

Fireworks retailers say it’s too early to know if sales have decreased, but they are scrambling to fill orders with old inventory.

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Ms. Heckman said. “We’re concerned about after July 4 and moving forward.”

In addition to prohibiting certain kinds of firecrackers, New York State bans all fireworks sold to individual consumers who don’t have permits.

New York’s chief fire marshal, Robert Byrnes, said he has seen a reduction in the number of people injured by firecrackers each year. There has been only one so far this year.

A spokesman for the police department, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, said the decrease was likely due to the city’s growing reputation for increased enforcement.

“The shock of having their vehicles seized last year and in 2006 may have had an impact in slowing activity,” Mr. Browne said.

He noted that six vehicles have been seized this year, compared to 124 last year and 181 in 2006.

Officials said police on Wednesday set up checkpoints at bridges and tunnels that will remain in place through the Fourth of July.


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