Mt. Pleasant bans fireworks until further notice

By James Tilson

Staff writer

7-2-2018

MT. PLEASANT—Following Gov. Gary Herbert’s urging for caution, Mt. Pleasant has decided to “ban all use of fireworks” within city limits starting June 29 until further notice.

Mayor Sandra Bigler said that after Gov. Herbert told Utah citizens on Thursday night to use “extreme caution” when considering whether to use fireworks, she directed Mt. Pleasant Fire Chief Sam Draper to call the Utah State Fire Marshall for direction on what to do about fireworks. The result of that call was that Mt. Pleasant decided it could ban fireworks due to the extreme fire danger this summer.

Bigler said her office had received numerous calls from concerned citizens about the fire danger, and the city was very worried about the possible consequences of sparks and hot embers.

Earlier this month, the city of Ephraim had decided it could not totally ban the use of fireworks, but could only “strongly recommend” that its citizens should not use fireworks this summer. That was because of the passage this spring of HB 38, or Utah statute 53-7-225.

The statute says in part: 53-7-225(5)(a) “A municipality may not prohibit a person from discharging class C common state approved explosives during permitted periods.” And further; 53-7-225(6) “If a municipal legislative body… provides a map to a county identifying an area in which the discharge of fireworks is prohibited due to a historical hazardous environmental condition…, the county shall, before June 1 of that year, (a) create a county-wide map; (b) provide the map to (i) each retailer (ii) the state fire marshal; and (c) publish the map on the county website.”

Sanpete County Commissioner Scott Bartholomew confirmed that no city in Sanpete had sent any notice of firework restrictions or maps of area in which fireworks were prohibited, nor had the county published any such map on its website.