The upcoming Pioneer Day holiday is a day in the state of Utah when folks are allowed to light fireworks. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Price City Fire Chief, Fitzgerald Petersen to talk about some fire safety tips.

This past fourth of July holiday presented no problems in the local area with fire calls. “We had the break from fireworks right after the Bear Fire of course, you know that we had a restriction, we banned them from the town. So it was a very easy year, people took that very seriously and we didn’t have one fire-related call on the fourth last year and I thought that would never been repeated. We went back to business as usual and we still did not have fireworks-related 911 call this year, absolutely remarkable,” stated Chief Petersen. He appreciates the community members for taking the precautions necessary to keep everyone safe and out of harm’s way.

There is a timeline of when folks can light fireworks during the holiday. “So the 22nd through the 25th, so today all the way until the day after you can light. The hour goes to 11:00 pm, except on the 24th which is the holiday, and on the holiday, you can do it till midnight. Just be respectful, be aware of your surroundings and the restrictions for Price City are the ones that have interaction with the wildlands, for example, Wood Hill, up anywhere in Price River, all of the areas, and those maps are available on both of our websites,” said Chief Petersen. Those are the only restrictions because we don’t’ want to impact those wildlands.

It’s important to keep safety precautions in mind when enjoying fireworks, even with something as simple as sparklers. “They are just so hot. That’s why they are popular because of the visual aspect of it even to small children, and they’re very assessable to burn injuries because of coordination and age and stuff like that. But that’s one of our most common injuries are those and they’re reaching upwards to over 1,000 degrees at the ignition points so we have to be very careful with those,” said Chief Petersen. Also always have a bucket of water near so you can soak your fireworks to make sure they are no longer lit, make sure you are keeping an eye on children and pets when lighting your fireworks.

Price City Fire Department would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Pioneer Day Holiday.