Chowning seeks fireworks controls

Monday, April 28, 2003 | 9:05 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, says she can't enjoy the Fourth of July anymore.

Chowning said she and others are afraid to leave their homes because of fireworks being shot off that may start fires.

"We need a hose to keep the roof from catching on fire," she said.

Skyrockets are the biggest culprit, she told the Senate Government Affairs Committee Friday.

She is pushing a bill that would require an advisory question be put on the statewide ballot in 2004 asking whether the "Legislature should direct the state fire marshal to adopt regulations to regulate sale and use of fireworks in all counties of this state."

The fireworks are illegal in Clark County, she said, but people drive to Nye County where they are sold. She said Nye County prohibits them from being ignited there.

"But that doesn't help neighboring counties," Chowning said. "People fear every Fourth of July," she said. "It looks like a war is going on."

She said fireworks touched off a blaze in one home that spread to three others.

She gained support for Assembly Bill 328 from state Fire Marshal Doyle Sutton and fire officials in Southern Nevada.

Sutton told the committee that possible regulations would deal with who could sell fireworks, who could buy them and what kinds could be sold in an effort "to eliminate those that are harmful."

Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, the committee chairwoman, said the 1999 Legislature gave the counties the authority to regulate fireworks, but Chowning criticized a "patchwork quilt of fireworks standards." She argued that a state law would bring uniformity.

This is at least the fifth effort by Chowning to tighten Nevada's fireworks law.

"For years and years and years, I have been fighting for this," she said.

Nobody testified against the bill. The committee did not take action.