Posted: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 12:00 am
You can't blame the Corvallis Fire Department for saying it. Every year, their phone rings and they have to go off and rescue someone who's gotten hurt or squirt water on somebody's barn that's been torched by fireworks.
So instead of firing off another seasonal "How to Set Off Fireworks Safely"memo, they just recommended that folks not buy them.
Kudos to the firefighters for being honest AND respectful about this. They say they have no intention of seeking a ban or restricting people's right to buy and light fireworks; they just want us all to know they'd rather we didn't.
Of course, this isn't the first time public officials and private pyromaniacs have battled over bombs and rockets. Here are a few choice morsels from the back issues of The New York Times. First, a clip from July 7, 1858, when New Yorkers just didn't bother buying firecrackers. Why, when your trusty pocket pistol sounded just as good?
"A man named Edward Powers was badly injured by the explosion of a pistol in his hand, while firing it on the corner of Third-avenue and Twenty ninth-street. His injuries were so serious that he had to be removed to Bellevue Hospital.
"… Henry Williams had the front of his cup shot away by a pistol in the hands of a boy. His eyebrows were badly scorched.
"… John Cox, a boy 15 years old, had one of his fingers shot off by a pistol. Taken to his home, corner of Forty seventh-street and Broadway.
"… John Miller, a boy six years of age, was walking up the Bowery, near Canal-street, with an elder brother, when he received a shot in his right leg from a pistol. He was taken to his residence in Hester-street. The person who fired the shot escaped arrest."
Here's a clip of some of the early attempts to control fireworks, published June 28, 1907. Note that it prohibits bombs bigger than 4 inches in diameter, and firecrackers larger than a standard-size stick of dynamite. Now, that's sensible legislation.
"In connection with the celebration of Independence Day this year, Commissioner Bingham has issued a stringent order governing the sale of fireworks and the kind that can be legally used. Commissioner Bingham has included in his order the following prohibitions:
"… Firecrackers longer than seven inches or larger in diameter than one and a quarter inches.
"… All bombs of any description larger than four inches in diameter.
"… Special attention is called to the Commissioner's order to the use of blank cartridges in real or toy pistols."
Finally, a more recent one, from July 5, 1953: A raid on a flagrant, broad-daylight black-market fireworks operation goes bad:
"Two plainclothes patrolmen conducting a surprise raid at an open-air fireworks market in Brooklyn at 12:30 p.m. yesterday turned out to be the real victims of surprise.
"The cry of "flatfoot" by one of a hundred teen-agers milling about a counter loaded with fireworks in a vacant lot on President Street touched off a "stampede" for freedom.
"Young legs raced with the speed approaching that of a whirling pinwheel. Down to the ground went Patrolmen James Casey and Thomas O'Hanian.
"When the policemen, dusty and bruised, were able to rise, their quarry, including half a dozen salesmen, had gained such headway that the chase was abandoned after a block's run."
There: That's what you should NOT do tomorrow. Now, go have fun, and don't do anything stupid!
Compiled by Finn J. John