ALBANY COUNTY — While sparkling devices are allowed in most of New York State, Albany County is one of a dozen prohibiting their sale or use.

“Albany County basically outlawed all fireworks,” said Commander James Rexford of the Bethlehem Police whose department had put out a release that defined sparkling devices as “ground-based or handheld devices that produce a shower of colored sparks and or a colored flame, audible crackling or whistling noise, and smoke.”

The state law limits the type, size, and construction of sparkling devices and requires that these devices must be hand held or mounted on a base or spike and be limited in sizes that range from 1 to 500 grams of pyrotechnic composition.

“In 2016,” Mark Grimm, an Albany County legislator from Guilderland, told The Enterprise, “we opted in to allow sparklers. The legislature reversed itself in September 2020 and it bans sparkling devices … McCoy signed it,” Grimm said of the Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.

Sale and use of sparkling devices is legal in counties and cities that have not enacted a local law forbidding them, according to the webpage maintained by New York’s Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

The Office of Fire Prevention and Control has been notified that these counties have prohibited the sale and use of sparkling devices: Albany, Bronx, Columbia, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange (prohibited in the cities of Middletown and Newburgh only), Queens, Richmond, Schenectady, Suffolk, and Westchester.

Last September, the Albany County Legislature voted, 33 to 5, to prohibit the use and sale of sparkling devices defined as ground-based fireworks such as the cylindrical or cone fountains and wooden sparkler/dipped sticks.

The Albany Police Department, says Albany County’s website, received 895 calls for fireworks in 2020, an increase of over 300 percent compared to 2019. In addition, the police have had to respond to calls from residents who have mistaken sparkling devices and fireworks for gunshots.

Any person who uses a sparkling device can be issued a fine up to $500 and any individual who sells or furnishes a sparkling device to another person can be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable with a fine of $1,000 and 15 days in jail, the county website says.

“When we adopted the local law in 2016 we were under the impression that sparkling devices would be the small hand-held sparklers, but what we got was much worse. There are fireworks exploding in the street, creating sounds that remind me of the mortar rounds that kept me awake while I served in Iraq. It’s unacceptable,” Chairman Andrew Joyce said in a statement on the website. “I admit that I made a mistake voting for legal sparklers in 2016 and opting out of the legislation is a good first start in keeping our communities quiet and safe.”

Rexford told The Enterprise that last year, his department received many complaints about fireworks in Delmar.

“We chased them all summer long,” he said. “We never located them,” Rexford said, explaining that those using the fireworks would quickly disappear.

“It’s not easy to find them in the dark,” he said.

The most complaints, Rexford said, didn’t come from someone worried a hand would be blown off but, rather, from residents with young children or animals. “It affects their quality of life,” Rexford said.

Asked if people using fireworks this summer, now that it is illegal, would be arrested, Rexford said, “We handle everything on a case-by-case basis. It all depends on what they have and what they’re doing.”

He gave the example of a kid waving a sparkler as a case that would be unlikely to lead to an arrest.

Rexford said that his department will be getting the word out on social media that sale or use of fireworks is banned in Albany County.

“A lot of people don’t know the law changed,” Rexford said.

Fourth of July

Rexford also said, for the Fourth of July, “Our hope is people go to the town fireworks. Leave it to the professionals.”

A fireworks display at the Elm Avenue Park on Route 32 in Bethlehem will start at 9:30 on July 4, he said.

A Fourth of July event, featuring fireworks at 9:15 p.m., will also be held at the Empire State Plaza in Albany. The event, which runs from 6 to 10 p.m., features the usual food and entertainment and this year also has a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic.

Free parking will be available starting at 5:30 p.m. in the visitor and “P” lots under the Empire State Plaza, and the Grand Street and Elk Street lots.

The American Red Cross echoed Rexford’s advice in a release, stating, “The safest way to enjoy fireworks is to attend a public firework show put on by professionals. Stay at least 500 feet away from the show. Leave any area immediately where untrained amateurs are using fireworks.”

The Red Cross gave this advice for setting fireworks off at home:

— Never give fireworks to small children, and never throw or point a firework toward people, animals, vehicles, structures or flammable materials. Always follow the instructions on the packaging;

— Keep a supply of water close by as a precaution;

— Make sure the person lighting fireworks always wears eye protection;

— Light only one firework at a time and never attempt to relight “a dud”; and  

— Store fireworks in a cool, dry place away from children and pets.