Some Thurston County residents are calling for a comprehensive fireworks ban for the upcoming fire season, citing increasing environmental risks and community safety concerns.
At the Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, March 25, Michelle Blanchard presented arguments for banning fireworks in the county.
"When I moved here 40 years ago, I learned that summer started on the fifth of July, and then you were always going to have rain on the Fourth of July," Blanchard explained.
"Now, the rains stopped in April, and by Memorial Day, the grass is up to our knees — it's tinder dry, just like the forests last year."
Blanchard pointed out that while neighboring jurisdictions have taken action, Thurston County remains an outlier.
"Pierce County, King County and the cities of Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater all imposed fireworks bans," she emphasized, noting that community members also provided testimony in support of a ban.
The concerns extend far beyond environmental risks. Blanchard detailed multiple community impacts, including excessive noise pollution that begins days before and continues after July 4.
Blanchard said the impact reaches deep into community life, causing significant distress to pets and creating psychological challenges for veterans like herself.
"These fireworks are not like when we were kids, little poppers," Blanchard stated.
As a Gulf War veteran with PTSD, she personally experiences significant distress from fireworks.
Her husband, Dennis Blanchard, provided scientific backing for their argument.
Using University of Washington climate data, he said there are alarming environmental changes like precipitation in June has decreased by approximately 25% since 1890, while average temperatures have increased by 2.73 degrees Fahrenheit.
He also noted the increasing frequency of red flag warnings, pointing to fire risks on July 4-5, as well as on the July 9-10 of recent years.
The board has not implemented a county-wide fireworks ban. The board did not immediately comment on potential policy modifications.
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KatAshe
Despite the ban on fireworks in Olympia, every year, without exception, we who live close to Boulevard and Log Cabin have to endure neighbors to the east of us setting off very large fireworks.
Sadly, the police can’t respond to notification, as they need to catch those setting them off in the act.
Thursday, March 27 Report this
Tish18
I agree with Ms.Blanchard. Every time I see fireworks going up near trees, I shudder. I know what a wildfire can do. Four years ago, I moved here from Northern California as a wildfire refugee. Soon I saw how much drier and hotter it was here than when I visited in 1977. l thought I had left Red Flag warnings behind me, but I get them regularly in the summer. We are so vulnerable to fires here; we cannot afford the risk of fireworks.
Thursday, March 27 Report this
Southsoundguy
Yet we never seem to have any. Here, we like fireworks. Go back to California.
Thursday, March 27 Report this
MisPeeps
Please god, Thurston County, ban fireworks! I live in a wooded area of Yelm and not only is the fire risk very scary, the noise sends wildlife and pets fleeing and disoriented. Many, many of us find fireworks abhorrent. The fire risk is very very real, if you check the emergency scanners and reports fire go WAY UP around the 4th in Thurston County. It is just too too dry on the 1st of July now. Please seriously consider this!!
Thursday, March 27 Report this
HappyOlympian
Fireworks horrible, please ban.
Friday, March 28 Report this
JstPlnOnry
I’m sorry but pointing out “there are alarming environmental changes like precipitation in June has decreased by approximately 25% since 1890, while average temperatures have increased by 2.73 degrees Fahrenheit.” over 135 YEAR span really isn’t alarming or helping your argument! Especially only a 2.73° temperature increase over 135 years! In fact, it’s really no argument at all!
Friday, March 28 Report this
bonaro
You people should be far more concerned with the Dept. of Natural Resources performing intentional prescribed burns in late August and September...which often run away from them causing far more damage than fireworks.
Friday, March 28 Report this
CrazyGranny
Maybe it's time we give the law enforcement officers some "teeth" to the ban - allow them to respond AND TICKET OR ARREST even if they can't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who the culprit(s) are. I'll be 77 just a couple of days before the 4th of July and by the 28th of June, we're bombarded by the noise and the litter and yes, even small grass fires close by. My apartment building and the others in this complex were all built over 50 years ago so they don't have sprinklers and fancy stuff - we have two outside spigots PER BUILDING. Then there's the FACT of the noise causing emotional damage - I suffer from PTSD and my little Service Dog and I both have a VERY rough time of it every year. I have neighbors in the next building over and some right across the street and down a couple of buildings who blatently stand in the middle of the street and shoot them off!! I can't afford to move so does that mean we have to suffer each year for at LEAST a week for someone's selfish pleasure?!?
Friday, March 28 Report this
SecondOtter
Blanchard is right. And just because one person has said he's never seen fireworks here doesn't mean it's not elsewhere. He must be living under a rock.
If you shoot a firearm into the air without caring where the bullet lands, perhaps onto someone's head, the shooter is liable. It's no different for fireworks. If the firework sets someone's house afire, the fireworks user should be liable.
Friday, March 28 Report this
Boatyarddog
Ahhh Yes, The usual suspect antagnosis S.S.GUY Doesn't care about Housing Homelessness Civil rights or anything that HE doesn't like.
Meanwhile, We In Carlyon Beach HOA, have had fires caused by exactly these events.... what is their point? Should WE let a FEW yahoos burn our houses down for their puny displays of arrogance. Calling it PATRIOTIC? HORSEHOCKEY!!!
MOVE TO D.C. S.SGUY you'll find plenty of fireworks there when It All Burns Down. BAN THE LOCAL TRIBES FROM ALLOWING ILLEGAL FIREWORK SALES to the Public!!!!
Friday, March 28 Report this
FrostedFlake
We saw what happened to Los Angeles. Those actually into it COULD go to a public display. Which COULD be launched from a barge off Billy Frank Jrs' Park, on Budd Inlet.
Friday, March 28 Report this
RobinKramer
Today's fireworks are bombs, not "fireworks." They are disturbing, not celebratory. A menace to pets and wildlife, a fire hazard, I have come to hate 4th of July and New Years Eve, confined to the house with terrified/drugged pets. Ban them and give the cops what they need to enforce it.
Friday, March 28 Report this
KellyOReilly
I was unaware that there was a fireworks ban in Olympia. That's because apparently illegal fireworks are let off in our neighborhood in NE Oly each year on New Year's Eve and during the week leading up to the Fourth of July, typically beginning around June 30th. Most disturbingly, we also hear handguns being discharged. During Fourth of July week, this is the noisiest neighborhood I've ever lived in. However, the legal fireworks sponsored by Olympia are far and away the biggest disturbance to us, our pets, and undoubtedly to our local wildlife. The repeated loud booms from the legal fireworks shows on New Year's Eve, the Fourth, and the Lakefair Festival are stressful to our pets and we wish we didn't have to be here during those times. But we have no choice and nor do the wildlife. I feel so sorry for the wild birds, deer and other critters during all the fireworks disturbances. I wish people could evolve past wanting to blow stuff up! There's nothing cool about it.
Friday, March 28 Report this
Southsoundguy
Never been a serious firework incident. You people are pathetic. Ban this, ban that…that’s all you know. You are terrified of reality and must have it managed and neutered by mommy government. Carlyon Beach is fine, you’re probably one of the losers who’d get uptight when we’d party and jet ski out there back in the day. Liberalism is a self-terminating ideology. You will leave nothing of substance behind and we will tear down your institutions. Zero legacy, except that we will know to never allow it to return.
Friday, March 28 Report this
HappyOlympian
SSDude rocks! After reading that eloquent speech, I am converted to your cause.
Saturday, March 29 Report this
OlyGuy2025
It must exhausting to be so afraid. Your biggest concern is fireworks in Thurston County? You want to allocate resources for ticking and arresting people who celebrate the 4th of July and have fireworks? That would be very shocking for the 45 plus people between the ages of 2-89 years old celebrating the 4th with us. To see mass arrests and or ticking of friends and family members this year. You really can't make this stuff up. What's next?
Sunday, March 30 Report this
Msodergem
Focusing on just fires related to fireworks does not focus on the number of veterans this affects. We have a high number of veterans who fought for our freedoms and still do in Thurston County. Our veterans need more empathy and support, this is one way to help, with a ban, not forgetting them. Bless our Veterans, along with their service working animals, who also get affected.
Sunday, March 30 Report this