The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is considering a set of tighter restrictions for the purchase and use of fireworks.
The change would put the approval of the explosive products into the hands of the fire marshal, extend the time available for studying particular fireworks by a month, and mandate that minors can buy them only if their parents are with them.
The revisions, while not directly linked with the incident, evoked the July 4 fireworks mishap in Vienna last year in which faulty Chinese mortars launched into a crowd, injuring about a dozen spectators. Similaraccidents took place that night at other Northern Virginia fireworks displays.
Since then, the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department has asked the town to refine its regulations by doubling the distance between onlookers and the displays, department spokesman Dan Schmidt said.
But the most recent proposed change, he said, “has nothing to do with Vienna.”
“This is really dealing with consumer fireworks, basically, fireworks the average person would use,” Schmidt said. “Really what it does is change the standard by which we are looking at and testing our fireworks.”
Monday’s unanimous action at the Fairfax board sets up a April 28 public hearing. If approved, the change would go into effect a day later.
Under the change, a vendor would need to submit a list of fireworks to the county’s fire marshal, who would have the sole authority to approve them based on national standards. That review period would be extended from 90 days to 120 days.
