Six-figure illegal fireworks fine for California homeowner as part of city’s crackdown

Officials in one Northern California city handed out fines that totaled $240,000 for residents who launched illegal aerial fireworks during the Fourth of July holiday this summer, including one household alone that received $100,000 in fines.

Jose Mendez, the code enforcement manager for the city of Elk Grove, and Lt. Joshua Magdaleno of the Elk Grove Police Department discussed the results of the fireworks enforcement operation during Wednesday’s Elk Grove City Council meeting. The city of nearly 200,000 people is just south of Sacramento.

Illegal fireworks include skyrockets, bottle rockets, Roman candles, aerial shells, sparklers and firecrackers. Each violation of Elk Grove’s illegal firework ordinance, or each single dangerous firework, is considered a separate offense. That means every time a dangerous firework is activated, it is a new $1,000 fine.

Mendez said city officials conducted educational efforts and an amnesty day, allowing residents to turn in any illegal fireworks, to inform them of the $1,000 fines that could be issued to property owners. He said the amnesty day resulted in residents turning in about 3,000 illegal fireworks, including 300 bottle rockets, eight Roman candles and seven homemade explosive fireworks.

The Police Department, responding to calls reporting illegal fireworks in Elk Grove, deployed an aerial drone on July 4 to capture video to assist investigators in identifying homes or properties where illegal fireworks were launched.

The police drone recorded video of six properties where illegal fireworks were launched, with one of the cited properties launching over 100 aerial fireworks, city officials said in a staff report. Video captured by the drone was passed on to the city’s code enforcement officers to evaluate.

“What you can see is the danger of lighting the fireworks in the city,” Magdaleno said while showing a video clip of the home that received the most illegal fireworks citations. “These are going extremely high in the air. You can see all the (nearby) homes down below. You can see the smoke showing the wind direction from the fireworks. And if you look closely, you can see some of the embers landing on some of the people’s houses.”

The police lieutenant said these illegal fireworks, fortunately, did not cause any fires or injure anyone.

The drone video alone led to fines that totaled $180,000 for those six properties cited; all were illegal aerial fireworks that were launched and exploded in the air.

Code enforcement officers also patrolled Elk Grove on the Fourth of July in conjunction with police officers and the Cosumnes Community Service District Fire Department. City vehicles were equipped with dashboard cams that recorded people launching illegal fireworks. That video was used to cite eight properties, which received a total of $53,000 for illegal aerial fireworks.

Investigators from the police and fire departments spotted five incidents of individuals using illegal fireworks, reports were submitted to code enforcement officers. That resulted in a total of $7,000 in fines for five property owners, city officials said.

In total, 19 property owners were issued citations for illegal fireworks that totaled $240,000. The city this week was processing these citations, and fine collection and enforcement efforts are pending.

The volume of calls increased by about 50% this year compared to last year. Mendez’s report to the City Council indicated the police dispatch center received 562 calls this year reporting illegal fireworks from 6 p.m. to midnight, even though the Fourth of July holiday falling on a weekday. There were 375 calls reporting fireworks in Elk Grove last year.

From July 4 through July 5, the Fire Department responded to 80 incidents; 22 were fires, and fireworks were identified as the heat source that caused seven of those fires, according to Mendez’s staff report.