With Bartholomew County experiencing abnormally dry weather conditions, local officials are urging extra caution for those planning to celebrate Independence Day with fireworks.
The Columbus Fire Department and Bartholomew County Emergency Management are currently monitoring the weather conditions to ensure that it safe for city residents to light fireworks during the Fourth of July holiday, said CFD spokesman Capt. Mike Wilson.
For now, consumer fireworks will be allowed to be set off in Columbus starting Thursday at 5 p.m.
“We’re going to continue to monitor that with (emergency management) in case there happens to be significantly drier conditions that we get here within the next few days,” Wilson said. “At that point, if we needed to, we could put some type of ban in place. …But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”
Despite the recent rain, Columbus and the surrounding area have received considerably less precipitation than normal over the past couple months, according to the National Weather Service.
So far this month, precipitation is 3.31 inches below normal, records show, while rainfall in May was an additional 3.22 inches below normal.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor listed weather conditions in Bartholomew County as “abnormally dry.” Just over half Indiana is experiencing some level of drought.
Local firefighters say they are urging residents who are preparing to set off fireworks to monitor conditions around their home and have some sort of extinguishing agent on hand to help prevent grass fires.
“We certainly want to ask anybody who is using those to use a lot of caution,” Wilson said. “They should have an extinguishing agent, whether it be a fire extinguisher, water hose or bucket of water. We want our community members to have some sort of extinguishing agent available.”
Additionally, Wilson said local residents should be cautious to avoid injury from fireworks. More than half of injuries involve children or young adults ages 20 and younger.
“Most of the injuries that occur are from those younger groups,” Wilson said. “Typically, they’re hand injuries, eye injuries, face injuries just from fireworks.”
“While they are fun, there are some dangerous elements to using consumer fireworks,” he added.
Fireworks restrictions
When can Columbus residents set off fireworks?
- June 29-July 3 from 5 p.m. to two hours after sunset
- July 4 from 10 a.m. to midnight
- July 5-9 from 5 p.m. to two hours after sunset
