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If you thought the smoke from the Lineage Logistics warehouse fire in Boyle Heights was intolerable, just wait for a whiff of the air the morning after the region has been smothered by a night of Independence Day fireworks.
Most of the attention is on the banned explosives shot high into the air that shake houses and light up the night sky. Those fireworks have long been outlawed everywhere in California but still manage to find their way onto streets of Los Angeles, as reported in fascinating detail by Jessica Garrison at L.A. Material.
But there’s another aspect to the region’s annual July 4 bombardment that gets much less attention: the legal sale of so-called safe-and-sane fireworks in 33 of L.A. County’s 88 cities, not including Los Angeles. The potentially hazardous drawbacks to these pyrotechnics barely register when city councils consider banning them – because the fireworks are sold by local nonprofits and other charity groups.
I’ve seen firsthand the bind this puts city councils in.