California City Municipal Code Art. 3 Fireworks

This article regulates the use of fireworks and fireworks sales only "safe and sane" fireworks can be sold or used under this article.

(a) Safe and sane fireworks may be sold and discharged within the City during the period beginning at 12:00 noon on June 28, and ending at 12:00 noon on July 5, of each year, pursuant to this article and not otherwise.

(b) "Dangerous fireworks" shall not be sold or offered for sale or discharged within the city.

(c) No person shall sell fireworks within the City without a permit issued under this Article. Each permittee shall be limited to one permit per year. Each permit shall be limited to one stand at one location.

Unless otherwise apparent from the context, words and phrases used in this article are defined as follows:

(a) "Agricultural and wild life fireworks" means fireworks designed by the State Fire Marshall or used to prevent damages to crops or the unwanted occupancy of areas by animals or birds through the employment of sound or light, or both.

(b) "Class I flammable liquids" means liquids having a flash point of one hundred (100) degrees Fahrenheit or less.

(c) "Dangerous fireworks" means the following:

(1) Pyrotechnics or fireworks containing phosphorous, sulfocyanide, mercury, magnesium, potassium picrate, gallic acid, chlorate of potash and sulfur, or chlorate of potash and sugar;

(2) Firecrackers, salutes, and other explosive articles of similar nature;

(3) Blank cartridges;

(4) Skyrockets, rockets, and all similar devices employing any combustible or explosive material and which rise in the air during discharge;

(5) Roman candles, including all devices which discharge balls of fire into the air;

(6) Chasers, including devices which dart about the surface of the ground during discharge;

(7) Snakes, boa constrictors, and snake nests containing bichloride of mercury;

(8) Sparklers more than ten (10") inches in length or one-fourth (1/4") inch in diameter;

(9) Articles of pyrotechnic display containing gunpowder;

(10) Articles commonly known as son-of-a-gun, devil-on-the-rocket, crack-it sticks, and automatic torpedoes containing arsenic;

(11) Explosives known as devil-on-the-walk and articles of similar character which explodes through means of friction;

(12) Toy torpedoes;

(13) Pyrotechnic devices having a side fuse;

(14) Fire balloons or balloons having burning material attached; and

(15) Fireworks designated as dangerous by the State Fire Marshal.

(d) "End fuse" means a fuse inserted into a pyrotechnic device at the end of the device as distinguished from the side of the device.

(e) "Exporter" means a person located in the City who sells, consigns, or delivers fireworks for delivery, use, or sale outside the City.

(f) "Fire nuisance" means acts which increase or may cause increase of, the hazard or menace of fire to a greater degree than customarily recognized as normal by persons in the public service of preventing, suppressing, or extinguishing fires or which may obstruct, delay, hinder, or become the cause of any obstruction, delay, suppression, or hindrance to the prevention of extinguishment of fire.

(g) "Fireworks" means blank cartridges, toy pistols, toy cannons, toy canes, or toy guns in which explosives are used, fire balloons (balloons of a type which have a burning material of any kind attached thereto or which require fire underneath to propel them, except hot air balloons designed to carry people and licensed by the Federal Aviation Agency), firecrackers, torpedoes, sky- rockets, rockets, Roman candles, Daygo bombs, sparklers, or other fireworks of like construction, and fireworks containing combustible or explosive substance producing a visible or audible effect by combustion, explosion, deflagration, or detonation, excluding toy pistols, toy canes, toy guns, or similar devices in which paper caps containing not more than twenty-five hundredth (.25) grain of explosive compound per cap are used.

(h) "Importer" means a person who: brings fireworks into the City or causes fireworks to be brought into the City; procures the delivery or receives shipment of fireworks in the City; or buys or contracts to buy fireworks for shipment into the City.

(i) "Pyrotechnic operator" means an individual who, by experience and training, has demonstrated the required skill and ability for safely setting up and discharging public displays of dangerous fireworks.

(j) "Retailer" means a person who sells, transfers, or gives fireworks to a consumer or user at a fixed location.

(k) "Safe and sane fireworks" means fireworks not designated as "dangerous fireworks," and only end fuses are used.

(l) "Side fuse" means a fuse inserted into a pyrotechnic article or device at a point along its length.

(m) "Wholesaler" means a person, other than an importer, exporter, or manufacturer selling only to wholesalers, who sells fireworks to a retailer or any other person for resale.

(a) Applications for a permit may be filed on or after February 1 of each year. One permit shall be issued for each two thousand (2,000) persons, or fraction thereof, residing in the city. If there are more applications than the number of available permits, the permits shall be issued first to organizations holding a permit as of July 1 of the previous year. Applicants which are denied a permit shall be placed on a waiting list to receive a permit when population warrants.

(b) Each application for the permit required by the provisions of this article shall show the following:

(1) The name and address of the applicant;

(2) The applicant=s status as a nonprofit organization;

(3) The names and addresses of the officers, if any, of the applicant;

(4) The location where the applicant will sell fireworks;

(5) When the applicant was organized and established;

(6) The location of the applicant=s principal and permanent meeting place; and

(7) The applicant's State Board of Equalization sales tax permit number.

(c) Applications shall:

(1) Be filed with the Fire Chief on or before May 15 of each year;

(2) Be accompanied by a plot plan, approved by the building department.

(3) Be accompanied by a $25,000.00 per person and $50,000.00 per occurrence property damage insurance policy, with a rider attached to the policy designating the city, as an additional assured thereunder; and

(4) Be accompanied by a fee established by the Council by resolution.

(d) Applicants shall be notified by the Fire Chief of the granting or rejection of applications before June 1, for each calendar year.

The Fire Chief shall investigate applications for a permit. The Fire Chief shall grant or deny the application and impose such reasonable conditions as are warranted.

No permit shall be issued except to nonprofit associations or corporations organized primarily for veteran, patriotic, welfare, civic betterment, or charitable purposes. The organization shall have its principal and permanent meeting place in the City, or have the words "California City" appear in the official name of the corporation, or draw more than fifty percent of its active members from within the incorporated City, shall have been organized and established in the area within the City for a minimum of six (6) months continuously preceding the filing of the application for the permit, and shall have a bona fide membership of at least ten (10) members.

The following shall be observed in the operation of fireworks stands:

(a) No person, other than the licensee organization, shall operate the stand for which the license was issued or share or otherwise participate in the profits of the operation of such stand.

(b) No person, other than the individuals who are members of the licensee or organization, or the spouses or children sixteen years or older of such members, shall sell or otherwise participate in the sale of fireworks at such stand.

(c) No person shall be paid a consideration for selling or otherwise participating in the sale of fireworks at such stand.

(d) Retail sales of safe and sane fireworks shall be permitted only from within temporary fireworks stands, and sales from other buildings or structures are prohibited. Such temporary stands shall be subject to the following:

(1) Fireworks stands need not comply with the Building Code. Stands shall be erected under the supervision of the City Engineer who shall require stands be constructed in a manner which will reasonably ensure the safety of attendants and patrons. An electrical permit in compliance with the Electrical Codes shall be secured.

(2) If the construction of the stands or the conduct of the operators do not conform to this article, the City Engineer may order the stands immediately closed.

(3) No person shall be allowed in the interior of the stands except those persons directly employed in the sale of fireworks.

(4) There shall be at least one (1) supervisor, twenty-one (21) years of age or older, on duty at all times.

(5) No fireworks shall remain unattended, regardless of whether the fireworks stand is open for business or not.

(6) No stand shall be placed closer than twenty feet to any other building.

(7) "No Smoking" signs shall be prominently displayed both inside and outside the stand. No smoking shall be permitted within the stand or within five feet of the stand.

(8) Weeds and combustible material shall be cleared from the location of the stand. No rubbish shall be allowed to accumulate in or around a fireworks stand, nor shall a fire nuisance be permitted to exist.

(9) No stand shall be erected before June 20. The premises on which the stand is erected shall be cleared of structures and debris not later than noon of the following July 8.

(10) Stands shall be equipped with at least one fire extinguisher for each exit in the stand, which fire extinguisher shall be approved as to efficiency and safety by the State.

(11) Each stand in excess of twenty feet in length shall have at least two exits, and each stand in excess of forty feet in length shall have at least three exits spaced approximately equal distances apart; provided, however, in no case shall the distance between exits exceed twenty feet.

(12) No stand shall be constructed with a depth of more than twelve (12) feet.