SALT LAKE CITY — Governor Spencer Cox issued an emergency order Thursday that prohibits all fireworks through July 5 as Utah deals with ongoing extreme wildfire danger.
The temporary order allows the state to prohibit fireworks statewide throughout the upcoming Independence Day holiday, but allows local communities to designate special areas, should they choose, where fireworks can be used in a safe way.
While the emergency order lasts only through July 5, state officials will assess ongoing weather conditions to determine whether further restrictions will be put in place for Pioneer Day on July 24.
In recent days, Cox had been looking at legal options to empower communities to impose additional fireworks restrictions. Under Utah law, the governor cannot enact an all-out ban. Cities are also blocked from enacting total bans on igniting personal fireworks, except for communities that are entirely in a wildland urban interface — meaning they are at the highest risk of fire danger.
During the current fire season, Utah has recorded 353 wildfires that have burned a total of 141,000 acres. One of the largest fires, the Iron Fire in Juab County, which is still burning at over 30,000 acres, was likely caused by illegal fireworks, according to Cox.
The Cottonwood Fire in Beaver County was also human-caused and is now considered to be one of the most destructive fires in state history.
In addition to the state of emergency, Utah will move to Stage 2 fire restrictions at midnight Saturday, meaning no open fires will be allowed until further notice.
Before the state of emergency, some communities had gotten creative by designating a single area as a place where people could set off personal fireworks, while others expanded their restricted zones.
"I think that there should be flexibility in the law that when there's extreme conditions like this, we ought to be able to say this is an emergency, yeah, we need to do this now," Draper Mayor Troy Walker said Thursday.
Walker said some lawmakers he has spoken with are sympathetic and willing to address it, but others have told him "freedoms are being restricted."
Cox says 'no end in sight' as Cottonwood Fire rages in central Utah:
Earlier this week, Moab issued an emergency declaration to ban fireworks within the entire city limits.
"It's a little creative, I think. It was a way for us to really come up with some legislative backing to allow us to do that. We just really believe that fire is a huge issue," Moab Mayor Joette Langianese told FOX 13 News on Thursday. "We've had two fires that burned structures in town because of fireworks. We've had three fires up on our mountain in the last several years. So because of the danger, we just felt we had to come up with something in the emergency declaration allowed us to do that."
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