Drones Used by California Cities to Patrol for Illegal Fireworks and Issue Fines (sfgate.com) 103
"California residents who lit illegal fireworks over the July 4 holiday may be in for a nasty surprise in the mail thanks to covert fire department operations," reports SFGate.
"A number of California cities, including Sacramento, have begun using drones to locate people shooting off illegal fireworks." From Wednesday to Saturday night, the Sacramento Fire Department's special fireworks task force patrolled the streets with unmarked cars and drones, focusing on neighborhoods where they've had prior complaints. Task force officers and the drones took photos of the illegal activity, and within 30 days the property owner where the fireworks were used could receive a fine in the mail...
This year, Sacramento upped the fine to $1,000 for the first firework, $2,500 for the second and $5,000 per firework after that. If you lit a firework on city property, such as a park or a school, the fine goes up to $10,000 each. There's no limit to how many fines you can be issued... This year, a number of cities across the state announced they would be using drones to find scofflaws, among them Indio, Riverside, Hemet, Brea and towns in Tulare County...
Fox40 reported on Saturday that around 60 citations were being prepared in Sacramento, with more likely on the way as fire officials review surveillance footage.
Last year for illegal fireworks, one Sacramento-area resident received a $100,000 fine.
"A number of California cities, including Sacramento, have begun using drones to locate people shooting off illegal fireworks." From Wednesday to Saturday night, the Sacramento Fire Department's special fireworks task force patrolled the streets with unmarked cars and drones, focusing on neighborhoods where they've had prior complaints. Task force officers and the drones took photos of the illegal activity, and within 30 days the property owner where the fireworks were used could receive a fine in the mail...
This year, Sacramento upped the fine to $1,000 for the first firework, $2,500 for the second and $5,000 per firework after that. If you lit a firework on city property, such as a park or a school, the fine goes up to $10,000 each. There's no limit to how many fines you can be issued... This year, a number of cities across the state announced they would be using drones to find scofflaws, among them Indio, Riverside, Hemet, Brea and towns in Tulare County...
Fox40 reported on Saturday that around 60 citations were being prepared in Sacramento, with more likely on the way as fire officials review surveillance footage.
Last year for illegal fireworks, one Sacramento-area resident received a $100,000 fine.
Illegal fireworks (Score:1)
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Starts with an F and rhymes with cocks.
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Fireworks were illegal in Arizona until 2010 where they're now permitted on and around four different holidays. Haven't had any wildfires that I'm aware of, except occasionally somebody might burn their own house down, usually because they threw away the remains before soaking them in water.
Part of the law stipulates that they can only be used on private property with the permission of the property owner. Between setting them off in an area far more controlled vs going out in the desert to avoid getting cau
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People here in California just love electing incompetent politicians
No, it's you not them. The majority of land in question is run by the federal government, so the buck stops with your Daddy.
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You mean fireworks are not causing fires like this?
https://www.azfamily.com/2025/... [azfamily.com]
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Remember it doesn't do any good for you to put up all those drones, what the power companies are doing isn't i
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Power companies are all privatized in Arizona as well, and it doesn't have this problem. Electricity rates are also half as much, and its power grid is far more reliable. California is what happens when the democratic party has absolute power at all levels of government. The politicians here will give you an earful about how important pronouns are, but they couldn't care less about land and resource management.
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VOTERS don't care about land management. politicians on some level always represent their voters.
Like how Americans are fat ignorant corrupt selfish greedy bullies who lie and have no idea why hypocrisy is shameful. They identify with their president for a reason; just distance themselves from a few characteristics they don't want to identify with. If you are the embodiment of every human flaw, everybody will have something in common with you.
And don't forget gender reveal parties (Score:2)
Yes, that happened once.
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It's a serious problem in some communities, especially in fire-prone areas.
Re: Illegal fireworks (Score:1, Flamebait)
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Sure but bans are dumb. Why because everywhere I have ever lived fireworks bans are violated routinely at least around Independence day and few other summer holidays.
People like them. In smaller communities the county sheriff does not want to enforce the bans because well, busting a party means a lot bad word of month next election. Nobody likes these laws but fireworks laws are needed to keep people from doing dangerous and stupid things with them.
Honestly we need better rules. Like we have for hunting
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I live in Boston and if you are in one of the unofficially designated "safe zones", mostly municipal baseball/soccer fields, then the cops and FD turn a blind eye to alcohol and fireworks ordinances on and around the 4th. I'm sure if it got out of hand they would shut it down, but I've seen folks set off some pretty serious ordinance without any incident. Mostly people just bring coolers and enjoy watching the 5 guys who decided to blow a couple month's rent on fireworks go to town.
Re: Illegal fireworks (Score:2)
Fines. Itâ(TM)s about the fines.
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Oh that fat $200 fine really makes a dent in department funding.
TFS says the fines start at a grand. If it was up to me, the punishment would be mandatory community service instead of a fine, that way it still sends a message to wealthy folks that they're not above the law, and doesn't disproportionally harm some low-income person who picked the wrong way to celebrate the 4th.
Of course, here in Florida setting off "illegal fireworks" is like going 10 MPH over the limit on the highway - technically illegal but rarely enforced.
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yeah, fining people for each firework seen could probably offset the massive debt they have from handing everything to the illegals.
What?. U got a source for your nonsense?
Re:tyrannical (and revenue raising impulses) (Score:4, Insightful)
And, Medicaid (medical assistance) helps...
For now. It isn't 'the illegals' who are cutting it.
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You can borrow.
I ran up $100K in student loan debt (mostly all my fault). Graduated as geology major. Had a job lined up one semester before graduating, for $38K/year (1997). Moved 400 miles to a city where I knew nobody to take that job.
Took a long time, but I paid off those loans and did just fine.
Where there is a will, there is a way. Flexibility helps a lot too.
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Hey in the comment before this, you said you moved before having a job lined up (but your wife did) .. now you're saying you had it lined up first? Did you move again somewhere else? What gives?
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You're assuming the same event, when that is not the case.
I graduated in 1997, and had a job lined up six months before then. I moved 400 miles to take that job.
I got married in 2005.
In 2013, we relocated 5000 across the continent. I quit my job, moved, and found a new one when I got here.
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That should have said 5000 miles. Alaska to Pennsylvania.
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Get any engineering degree and you'll be fine. Dude, like enroll in a community college NOW. They have financial aid that will cover all your expenses.
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Deportations and Immigration Limits Threaten California Families, Economy
Your first source.
DHS Exposes Sanctuary Jurisdictions Defying Federal Immigration Law
Your second source.. bye, garbagr human being.
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Gwt the fuck out of here, you lying racist sack of shit.
Do you shame people as racist when you find out they are against illegal immgiration? Where is your human decency? When someone tells you they don't like gangs, or Hollywood, does that make them racist or a Nazi?
Re: tyrannical (and revenue raising impulses) (Score:2)
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You described an outlier scenario as typical. And second, your first source contradicts you.
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To a legal immigrant, it's "Welcome to America... here's a car, you're signed up for all the aid possible, doesn't matter that your aid deprives someone deserving. We'll hand you housing and you don't pay taxes for 10 years."
Where did you get this impression? legal immigrants to the US (and long term visitors like students or H1-B types) for the most part have to show they have financial means to support themselves and/or a sponsors before anyone even lets them in the country. For refugees this is not the case, but for most... including ye olde chain migrants (family reunification) it is. And NO idea where you got the cars and housing thing unless you mean some charities that do that. There are no such government program
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To be clear you're postulating that "illegal immigrants" are being given state aid. Illegal ones. You realise to get state aid you need to go through a whole process of registering and checks associated with getting aid and that no illegal immigrants qualify.
Meanwhile, someone like me, born here and lived here all their life can't get crap.
Maybe because you made up logically incoherent scenario in your head in order to paint yourself the victim.
But I guess "illegal" is the new "I don't like it". Maybe it's time we come up for a Slashdot word for a Karen. We could call them something like
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In California, illegal immigrants qualify for state aid. [go.com] There are other states which have done likewise, such as Minnesota.
Cheaper than officers driving (Score:1)
Next: Illegal Fireworks Used To Down Drones (Score:3)
This is American, darn it! The answer is more explosives. What was the question again?
Re: Next: Illegal Fireworks Used To Down Drones (Score:2)
The question is how to make anti-aircraft fireworks.
I had always wanted a reason to do this, I guess now there is one.
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The question is how to make anti-aircraft fireworks.
I had always wanted a reason to do this, I guess now there is one.
I can see a "flower net" launched from a mortar. It deploys a huge lightweight ornate flower shaped arrangement of some sort of fuse cord that burns in the air and looks like a flower slowly falling to earth. By the time it reaches the ground the cord is mostly burned up. While up in the air any drone near the mortar would be helplessly ensnared by it.
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Of course... celebrate our Independence Day with cheap Chinese fireworks!
Fireworks Fatalities Much Lower in UK where Legal (Score:3)
This is American, darn it!
Exactly, so how is it that guns are perfectly legal while you are banning fireworks? The UK has very strict gun control laws but every Guy Fawkes day lots of people set off fireworks in their back gardens perfectly legally. California had 11 deaths due to fireworks while the UK had zero firework related deaths in 2022/23 and only 7 deaths in total from 2010-2023 [www.gov.uk].
So making fireworks legal - while putting some limits of the types of fireworks allowed - seems to save lives, especially when you factor in th
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Now, I've never been to California and I don't suppose that I ever will, but from what I've seen and heard I strongly suspect that California in July is significantly more "flammable" than the UK in November.
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Our local FD had a sign up reminding us that aerial fireworks are illegal. We were apparently allowed to light off other types. I didn't feel much like celebrating the end of America, though.
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Re: The entire state could sink into the Pacific (Score:1)
Californiaâ(TM)s economy is the 4th largest economy in the world. So the tax revenue to fund all of the welfare states, which are majority Republican, would be in trouble. California, which used to be its own country, could secede and be just fine, thank you.
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California, which used to be its own country, could secede and be just fine, thank you.
There is no legal mechanism for a state to secede from the union, never mind unilaterally. One can argue about whether or not this was intentional.
Re: The entire state could sink into the Pacific (Score:2)
Re: The entire state could sink into the Pacific (Score:2)
True. We fought a Civil War over that one. What I was trying to convey, is that California could be on its own and do just fine, whereas most states could not.
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Except the hundreds of millions in federal tax dollars they pay, the massive chunk of agriculture, you know the unimportant things.
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Not to mention CA has about 12% of the population of the USA.
City property. (Score:4, Insightful)
...within 30 days the property owner where the fireworks were used could receive a fine in the mail
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If you lit a firework on city property, such as a park or a school, the fine goes up to $10,000 each.
Who are they fining in these cases if they are doing this covertly and not getting ID from the perpetrators?
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Who are they fining in these cases if they are doing this covertly and not getting ID from the perpetrators?
Do you know how the police / enforcement process works at all? Rhetorical question. We know the answer is no, otherwise you wouldn't have written your comment.
A poem by Howard Nemerov (Score:2, Interesting)
Because I am drunk, this Independence Night,
I watch the fireworks from far away,
from a high hill, across the moony green
Of lakes and other hills to the town harbor,
Where stately illuminations are flung aloft,
One light shattering in a hundred lights
Minute by minute. The reason I am crying,
Independence Day (Score:3)
Americans: Fireworks are illegal? Fuckoff, I'm lighting them in the street then.
Worse: some dumbass caused a fire near LA by buying professional show grade fireworks without knowing how to use them.
If he had access to a fireworks store (like I shop at in New Hampshire) he probably would have just bought those.
I buy consumer mortars and those are *plenty* big for home use.
Much kudos to the Chinese who make very reliable pyrotechnics at quite a fair price. I only spent $160 this year despite the tariffs.
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I'm happy our local PD and FD look the other way despite pretty much every firework being illegal in our state. Pretty much the entire 4th of July Weekend is usually open game. Just don't do anything stupid and you're fine. Start a fire? Sure then you get a fine. Someone lose a hand? That's a fine. Shoot them off safely and responsibly... Fuck right off.
Some cities have started cracking down. And exactly what you described happens instead.. we've seen people launching them FROM CARS (Roman candles and such)
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It's a lot easier to say sure go ahead and legalize fireworks when you are in New Hampshire as opposed to drought stricken California.
Never mind the fact that the stuff you're describing could just as easily start a large fire. I don't think he realized what the Southwest is like it really doesn't take much the whole bloody region is b
Deterrance (Score:3)
The point of the fines is to get people to stop shooting off fireworks given the enormous fire danger. Unfortunately you only get fined if you are caught. So this story is threatening people by making getting caught a reasonable possibility.
We live in country where there are people who do things illegal and figure they will just pay the fine if caught. Its just a cost. Some of those people are rich enough that they can afford to risk a very high fine to have a little fun.
So you have to make it more likely they will get caught and the fine has to be very onerous even for the richest among us. Because that is the only way to keep idiots from launching fireworks into the air that can start a fire whereever they land in a tinder dry state.
Re: I'm ok with this... (Score:3)
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I'm sure the state needs all the money it can get from it's citizens. You know, to give them all the social services it gives to those in need.
Correct. Since the federal government is cutting essential social services which keep people alive, California is going to have to step up again and pay for the stuff you broke bitches can't afford, like health care.
A hole in their plan (Score:2)
I have an idea (Score:1)
Also, victimless crimes are BS. Reckless endangerment, okay, great. Going 100 MPH in your car is dangerous even if you don't crash. But anyone who knows anything about fireworks knows how to light them off safely so leave us alone! Glad I don't live in this nanny state!
Re: I have an idea (Score:3)
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The folks doing this are pos bringing in anything they can from out of state or illegal purchases from large scale manufactures. Its not safe and if you live anywhere near the action, these explosions are wrecking any quality of life for residents and pets, setting off alarms, and risking personal injury and property damage.
Personally love the hyperlocal fireworks shows and hate there are fines and bans. Judging from their omnipresence a lot of people feel the same.
States attempting to ban things a huge number of people are willing to do anyway only needlessly erodes states legitimacy which one way or another ends up exacting its own costs. The "safe and sane" shit in CA is basically nothing that flies and effectively a total ban. This is a failure of governance. Instead of providing reasonable limitations people can broad
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Victimless? This is CA which is constantly on fire as it's climate becomes drier. You want to allow smoking next to gas pumps next?
4A violation? (Score:1)
Laws are only for normies (Score:3)
Same for Chinese New Year? (Score:2)
I wonder if the drones and force deployments and the big fines are used for other firework-prone holidays, like Chinese New Year in San Francisco's Chinatown district? I somehow doubt it.
hmm (Score:2)
Just thought of a new use for fireworks (Score:1)
will of the people? (Score:3)
seems like a pretty clear cut case of 'will of the people' overriding government authoritarianism. I'm not arguing that there isn't good reason to ban the fireworks in an area that frequency suffers devastating fires, but this isn't exactly that. People are doing this in the city in substantial numbers, enough that the 'government' should rethink the model. California seems plagued with 'nany state' tendancies.
I just wonder how the people don't vote these people out?