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It will be 103 to 106F on the Fourth of July tomorrow. Yeah, you read that right a hundred and freaking six degrees Fahrenheit. Like much of the country we are also in a drought. It’s so dry here most of the professional fireworks have been cancelled, and we are at a high alert for fire. After watching the Colorado fires on the news and on the internet you’d think people would understand what risk they’re running by shooting off fireworks this year, but even as as I type this I can hear them going off somewhere in the distance, so I’m doing this blog.
Are fireworks this year really worth burning down your house? If they are, then by all means go ahead. Some houses burn down every year in this country due to fireworks landing on roofs, and other parts, but this year . . . this year someone has the opportunity not just to take out their own house, but the neighbors, or the entire neighborhood.
I know you spent money on the fireworks, but they’ll still be good after it rains in a few weeks, and we aren’t under a fire advisory. Let’s all just have Fourth of July in August, surely by then this heat and drought will be gone. We can have the Fourth of August and shoot every damn firework you have, but now, tomorrow, please don’t.
Look around your house, right now, see all your stuff, now picture it gone. Picture all of it gone, what the fire doesn’t get the water damage from the firemen putting out the fire will probably destroy. Are fireworks for Fourth of July 2012 really worth losing it all? It is?
Okay, is shooting off fireworks for the actual date worth destroying your neighbors’ house, and all their stuff? How about if they have small children who go to bed early, and the fire you start in your yard jumps to their house, and they can’t get their children out in time? Is having fireworks tomorrow worth them dying and you living with the knowledge that because you just had to have those bottle rockets, children are dead.
You think I’m being harsh? How about the lives of the firemen and women that will be fighting the fire that your Roman candle set off? Do you care if they get burned, hurt, dead? Do you give a shit? Then, don’t set off any fireworks until the fire danger is past.
If you value the stuff in your house, the lives of your family, your pets, the property, and lives of your neighbors, hold off on the fireworks, please. And all of you know that every time you hear someone set off fireworks today, tomorrow, or the next day, that person is risking everything you’ve worked for, every memory from your family, those pictures of your grandparents, or great grandparents, all your memories are up for grabs, because someone near you just has to have fireworks while we are under a severe fire threat. So, every time you hear a firework go off, know that they not only are risking their own lives, but your life and the lives of your children.
We’ve already had one fire here in Mark Twain National Forest which was about 90 miles from St. Louis. So far the brave men and women of our fire service, and our forestry service have done their best here and out west, but I’m betting that they, and their families would ask you all, to please, just wait. It will rain, it will get cooler, and then we can all party, and blow the whole bundle of fireworks. We can light the sky red, white, blue, and purple, but not now. Not until it’s safe.
If you want to burn your own house down, I don’t advise it, but it’s your choice that having fireworks right this minute means more to you than your memories and your belongings, but please, do not make that choice for the rest of us. We want all of us to live through this holiday, don’t you?