Fireworks Not Allowed

By 250 News

 Canada Day Celebrations in Prince George will have a lot less sparkle this weekend.

The organizers of Fort George Park celebrations had already decided not to hold a public fireworks display as part of the annual festivities – and now, private celebrations have been doused by the city's Fire Services Bylaw. Deputy Fire Chief John Lane says the city won't be issuing fireworks permits.

“The Fire Services Bylaw restricts the issuing of permits, generally to the time around Halloween and on very special occasions apart from that time period.”, says Lane. “With the current dry conditions and the ban on any open burning imposed by forestry and also imposed by the City, we've decided that in the interest of maintaining public safety, especially with the large concentration of open land and forest in the city, that we will not issue any fireworks permits for this weekend.”

“The bylaw requires that anyone discharging or igniting fireworks have a permit to do so.” Lane adds retailers are prohibited from selling fireworks, too. “The sale of fireworks is also regulated by that bylaw. To my knowledge, there have not been any permits issued to sell fireworks within the city, in fact the bylaw quite narrowly restricts the time period when fireworks can be sold within the city and again that's within the Halloween period.”

And while retailers in surrounding areas can still sell such items, Lane says they can't be brought back and set off in town. “It's outside city limits, so our bylaw does not take effect there. But anyone bringing fireworks purchased from outside city limits into the city and discharging them needs to have a permit to do so.”

For those who have to light something up to mark the nation's birthday, Lane says hand-held “Sparkler” wands are not subject to the permit requirements.

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