Out west, fireworks started a few wildfires and the air is bad again :( Peak Murica, let's shoot some explosives at nothing and see what burns lol
Edit: Wait, my bad, there isn't an identified link between these specific wildfires and yesterday's fireworks. That was just my own (biased) assumption.
They certainly did start the 2017 fire in the Columbia River Gorge though:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/22/613374984...
Fireworks are now banned in Portland after an apartment building burned down due to a dumpster fire started by fireworks, which killed two people in 2021:
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/07/08/northeast-portland-ap...
Personal fireworks are idiotic and people who light then off should be ashamed of themselves, it is like driving drunk, they all think they're safe and they can handle it.
A third died in the burn center 102 days after the fire.[0]
I have multiple friends who lived in the Heidi Manor Apartments over the years. I saw the fire from 15 ft away standing on the sidewalk across the street from the building, it was horrifying. That building was a tinderbox and those walkways didn't have nearly enough staircases to be safe, it was a disaster waiting to happen.
I absolutely agree that personal fireworks are insane and should be outlawed entirely.
[0] https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2023/04/deadly-portland-apa...
I use purple air zoomed out combined with windy.com to generate my own smoke predictions, it's worked pretty well for me.
We legally light stuff on fire and launch it in the air, that will absolutely result in additional fires.
These fires were contained, so the bigger wildfires are just continuing to do their thing. These probably distract from larger firefighting efforts, though.
But it wouldn't be fair to attribute the poor air quality today specifically to fireworks unless evidence links them.
The last 4th of July show I watched had designated people on the ground stamping out fires as they started. It seemed ridiculous to me for the city to still do them in such a dry area, but at least each little fire was put out within seconds. It was wild seeing the explosions happen, then tiny people running around and putting them out, occasionally with the help of a firetruck. In the end it worked out pretty well and none of the fires spread or lasted past the fireworks show. But still kinda unreal to witness...
Rancho Cucamonga is over 300 AQI (hazardous) this morning.
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/07/04/officials-warn-of-poor...
Not much in a firework is actually all that hot post explosion, for example.
Were they lighting the fireworks directly on a dry field? How far from the tubes were these fires starting?
Edit: video said it was the falling fireworks that started the fires. It took two months of planning, several hundred feet of hoses, and a few engines and many firefighters pre parked there to contain it