Police and city officials across Orange County have been gearing up to crack down on the use of illegal fireworks like Roman Candles, mortars and M-80s on the eve of America’s 250th birthday this Saturday.

Leading up to the country’s semiquincentennial, officials across the region have been ramping up local fireworks laws, namely adopting social host ordinances – regulations allowing a home owner to be fined for the use of illegal fireworks on their property. 

These new rules have been implemented in places like Anaheim, Fullerton, Orange, Buena Park and Stanton to deter the use of pyrotechnics with hefty fines.

In a different approach, cities like Placentia, Irvine, Laguna Beach and La Habra have outright banned all fireworks in the city.

Meanwhile in Santa Ana, possession of illegal fireworks can result in a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail.

Last week, officials in Cypress – a town where all fireworks are outlawed – voted unanimously to move forward with implementing their own social host fireworks ordinance based on Buena Park’s version just over a week before Independence Day.

The ordinance won’t go into effect until finalized after the Fourth of July holiday.

Councilwoman Bonnie Peat proposed the ordinance last month and said the law was about protecting the quality of life for residents and their pets and public safety.

“Any fireworks, by the way, can cause a fire or property damage, create a significant amount of noise and disturbance and injury,” Peat said at the June 9 council meeting. 

“There’s one thing about the Fourth of July – and I don’t say this lightly –  you can drug your animal, you know it’s coming. You can give them some kind of sedative to prepare them for the noise or put them in a place where it’s not noisy. You can’t do that if it happens to happen on August 15 at 7 p.m. at night.”

Councilman David Burke said without getting drones out to enforce fireworks regulations, the new law won’t make much of a difference.

“We have had tough laws in place. The hard part is just the reality of catching someone in the act and that’s a challenge. No matter what your penalties are, no matter what ordinance you have,” he said at the June 23 meeting.

The expected law comes after the death of an 8-year-old Anaheim resident, who was killed in an illegal fireworks explosion last Fourth of July in Buena Park.

City Attorney William Wynder said even with the current ban on fireworks, there has been a pattern of “scofflaws” ignoring fireworks regulations.

“The penalty provisions we are suggesting to the council are administrative fines; they are not criminal penalties. They are designed to deter wrongful conduct, not to punish individuals who engage in wrongful conduct, other than in their pocketbook,” Wynder said at the June 23 meeting.

The new ordinance could potentially have fines that range from $2,000 to $6,000 depending on the number of violations.

Wynder said if the ordinance is finalized, they wouldn’t be fining people right away and would focus on educating residents on the law first.

“We’re not trying to raise money through this ordinance, we’re trying to encourage obedience to a longstanding existing law,” he said.

Amid the crackdown, cities across Orange County are hosting their own fireworks shows to celebrate Fourth of July this weekend.

[Read: Where to See Fireworks in Orange County on the Fourth of July]

At the same time, police officials in cities like Cypress and Anaheim have established plans for how they will enforce firework laws in the days leading up to the holiday and the holiday itself.

[Read: Orange County Gears up For Illegal Fireworks Ahead of America’s 250th Birthday]

Cypress Police Chief Mark Lauderback said this year his department will be taking an aggressive approach to enforcing the city’s fireworks ban, cancelling off days for officers on the Fourth of July and having four police officers solely dedicated to firework calls.

“We’re out doing undercover operations, undercover stings, working with our partnering cities that have had habitual offenders, learning where they’re normally hanging out at or selling these illegal fireworks at, so we can hopefully catch them in the act,” Lauderback said at the meeting.

Lauderback added they will take a zero tolerance approach to people lighting illegal fireworks and mortars and an educational approach to people using safe and sane fireworks – which are also banned in Cypress.

He also said people used to have to drive down to Mexico to get illegal fireworks but nowadays people can get them from Arizona and other states without having to go through checkpoints.

“They’re being sold in different states that are legal, and people are bringing them back into California, larger quantities than we’ve seen in the past,” he said.

“We’ve now seen the bigger influx of these illegal fireworks coming into our communities.”

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.