Articles Tagged: Fireworks

The Fourth of July holiday got an early start with a July 3 fireworks show at Ellis Park in Cedar Rapids.

Corridor groups are ready to lower the boom to light up the night skies over the Fourth of July holiday, unless Mother Nature decides to add her own fireworks.

“This one seems painfully obvious, but never tried to light fireworks inside of a building,“ Marion fire chief says. Yes, it happens.

Celebrations begin this weekend and move through July 6

Cedar Rapids has 410 calls, Iowa City 151

Cedar Boat Club re-launching popular lead-in to Independence Day

Community firework displays begin Saturday and continue through holiday

Fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July can be bought just about anywhere in Iowa. But they can’t be legally set off in every city. And this year’s dry spell makes the fireworks ever more problematic.

The Iowa City Police Department received 236 calls for service related to fireworks complaints from June 1 to July 8, according to a city memo. During the same period last year, the department received 136 calls.

As Cedar Rapids saw an uptick in fireworks vendors this year after a new state law eased restrictions on sales, some city officials are looking for options to alleviate the burden of handling fireworks reports on public safety personnel.

Corridor hospitals saw a decline in patients arriving in emergency rooms with fireworks-related injuries over the holiday weekend when compared to volumes in recent years. Cedar Rapids police also saw a decline in calls for services due to fireworks, but Iowa City totals remained the same when compared to previous years.

Recap of news from across the state

Under the new law, cities including Cedar Rapids and Iowa City will no longer be able to restrict firework sales to only certain zoning categories.

A bill waiting for Gov. Kim Reynolds to sign into law would strip local city councils of regulating the sale of fireworks, frustrating efforts of cities like Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to crack down on the consumer explosives in response to citizen complaints and a rise in injuries.

Iowa is donating 146 protective helmets and 714 ballistic vests to Ukraine. They are excess expired equipment from the Department of Public Safety and 18 other law enforcement agencies.