Ga. Law Places Few Restrictions On Setting Off Fireworks

The new law says you can shoot fireworks between 10 a.m. and midnight. On a few special occasions such as the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve, they’re allowed until 2 a.m.

The law places few restrictions on where fireworks are off limits. You can’t use them within 100 yards of nuclear power plant, a gas station or a refinery. But the law does not address whether they can be used in public places like parks.

Local municipalities haven’t addressed if fireworks can be used in public places yet because everything is so new, says Jack Butler Jr., Fulton County’s deputy fire chief. But he says this issue will be vetted out in the legal process.

So that means this year fireworks are allowed in most public places, but experts say that’s not recommended.

David Rhodes, section chief for Atlanta Fire Rescue, says his department will ask the Atlanta City Council to ban fireworks in public places like parks and on city streets.

“You would want to restrict those areas so that somebody doesn’t just set off fireworks right next to someone else. It’s basically just to protect the other patrons of the parks,” says Rhodes.