The City of Sequim will host its first professional Independence Day fireworks show, starting at about 10:15 p.m. on Sunday, July 4, at Carrie Blake Community Park.
The show will last about 20 minutes. The fireworks will launch from the Albert Haller Playfields at the Water Reuse Site, 350 N. Blake Ave., and display between 150-400 feet above the field and should be visible from many places in Sequim.
Attendees who are not fully vaccinated are asked to wear a mask when gathering and viewing the show from inside the park; people are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the final vaccine in the series.
The City of Sequim banned the discharge of consumer fireworks in the city limits effective in 2018 following city residents’ advisory vote in Nov. 2017. This show is intended as a community celebration and to discourage the unlawful discharge of other fireworks, city representatives said.
One permit is filed in city limits for commercial fireworks sales at Walmart’s parking lot, city officials said. Sales will be allowed from June 28-July 5 despite not being allowed for discharge in city limits.
For more information, contact Communications and Marketing Director Barbara Hanna at bhanna@sequimwa.gov or 360-681-3422.
Unincorporated Clallam County fireworks
While the discharge of fireworks is banned in the cities of Sequim and Port Angeles, residents can discharge legal consumer fireworks from June 28-July 5 in unincorporated Clallam County.
Times include: June 28, noon-11 p.m.; June 29-July 3, 9 a.m.-11 p.m.; July 4, 9 a.m.-11 p.m.; and July 5, 9 a.m.-11 p.m.
Chief Criminal Deputy Brian King urged residents via press release last week “to exercise extreme caution using legal fireworks and completely forgo the use of illegal pyrotechnic fireworks.”
He said with a dry summer ahead, “careless use of fireworks over the Fourth of July could lead to catastrophic wildfires that stretch our abilities to fight on the Olympic Peninsula.”
In describing the difference between legal and illegal fireworks, King said generally, “anything that explodes is illegal,” while “legal pyrotechnic fireworks are those that involve an open flame to light or have any material in them that burns.”
Some of the more popular fireworks include sparklers (legal), Roman candles (some are legal) and bottle rockets (illegal) and can all ignite dry grass or brush and get out of control rapidly, King said. M-80s, and cherry bombs are not fireworks and are illegal, he said.
King added that “bottle rockets have been responsible for most firework related grass and structure fires in Clallam County.”
Any fires or damage caused by a person’s fireworks, even if legal, could result in civil and possibly criminal charges, he said.
King encouraged locals to see a public display rather than shoot off fireworks.
