FRESNO (KMJ) — Officials with both the City of Fresno and Fresno County are offering their help in the fight against illegal fireworks.
The promises came during a Fresno City Council meeting Thursday morning, during a discussion put forward by Councilmember Garry Bredefeld.
“I support fireworks, but legal fireworks”, began the District 6 representative. “We have safe and sane fireworks that are sanctioned by the state. We have many non-for-profits who make a lot of money from those. I support that.
“This is solely about the illegal fireworks that went off on July 4th, and I think it was very different to prior years.”
Fresno Fire has temporarily suspended response to medical emergencies due to draw down of available resources.
— Fresno Fire PIO (@FresnoFire) July 5, 2017
Bredefeld said he wanted to do something following Fresno Fire’s decision to suspend medical services the evening of Independence Day.
“That means if somebody had a heart attack they weren’t going to be able to respond because they were putting out grass fires and it’s just a matter of time before we have serious injury.”
He wants to substantially increase the fines for using illegal fireworks within the City of Fresno. It currently stands at $1,000 per offense. Bredefeld’s says what they should do is make the first offense $5,000, the second offense should be $25,000, and the third offense would be $50,000.
Newly appointed City Manager Wilma Quan-Schecter detailed what is already in the works to combat the use of illegal fireworks, including the $1000 fine, a public service campaign, and setting up a temporary hotline to keep 911 from getting jammed with calls – though an ambulance would still show up during a medical call says City Spokesperson Mark Standriff.
“This will be easy reporting for our citizens.
“I will also work with [Fresno Police] Chief Dyer to enforce the current language in the municipal code.”
Chief Jerry Dyer began his comments expressing his gratitude to Councilmember Bredefeld for highlighting the issue after the events of July 4th 2017.
“I don’t recall us, in our history, seeing as many illegal fireworks in all parts of the city. It wasn’t unique to just Fresno, for whatever reason this was a California issue.”
He is calling on state partners to ensure border inspections booths are filled, and keep contraband from outside California outside its limits.
“Next year is going to be somewhat unique on July 4th for us, because of our deployment schedules. We’re going to have a significant number of officers out in the field.
“I’m going to make that public commitment today, that we’re going to have upwards of 25 to 30 police officers that will be dedicated to illegal fireworks in the city that night.”
The idea to increase the fines for using illegal fireworks was not voted on, as the matter was for discussion only.
“Thank you staff, thank you council, thank you Member Bredefeld,” concluded Council President Clint Olivier.
Hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew as it aired:
