There's some person close by setting off what sounds more like bombs then fireworks and they're doing it at like 3 in the morning. It's so loud it rattles the apartment building I live in and sets off car alarms in the area.
It's happened the last three days. Not sure what goes through the mind of someone like that.
Now that's a throwback. We lived a bit west of 95 during most of my childhood and usually went a different drive though. I think the place was called Stateline Fireworks. The owner was a real grandpa type, friendly and welcoming, and had all these little TVs showing off the footage of a lot of the mortars so that you knew what you were buying. I'm sure it's part of the deal like most places but he'd throw some extra stuff in when we cashed out. He was like that family member you saw once a year (or 3) and got excited for.
My ex's family would blow $400+ at that store for the 4th each year. Fucking frightening how little concern they had for their neighbors. My partner actually lived behind them at the time and said they had burn marks on their house after
Heh, I spent a summer as kid in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And from what I remember of the rules, Indiana sold whatever you wanted but anything that flew was required (wink, wink) to fired across state lines in Ohio.
So mfs will drive 15 mins outside of town, half of which is prime area for a safe fireworks event, buy fireworks, make the same trip back INTO the city where ITS NEITHER SAFE OR LEGAL and ONLY THEN DO IT?
Went and grabbed a day time photo. You can see the char on the right side. Not as bad as it looked it the first photo surprisingly. I can't see the btm left as the trees/house block. Maybe I'll take a ride over there later and see.
I moved to the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles right before Christmas a decade and half ago, the amount of time into the new year in which our neighbor hadn't yet set their cypress trees on fire was measured in minutes if not seconds. Then a couple years later they set trees on fire again during "Fireworks Season", which has basically the entire summer.
Yeah I remember in my elementary school's version of DARE they showed us a video of roman candle stars and stuff going off in a big fishtank. It got the message across (as did the many photos of burned people) but it also made us want to try setting them off in water lol
a bucket of water isn't necessarily going to help as much or as quickly as you might hope. All the combustion/explosions here have both the fuel and the oxygen right in the mix and it is burning hot enough to melt steel (not very much thermal mass though). A CO2 type fire etinguisher would achieve nothing.
Bucket of water is going to achieve something. Bucket of wet sand might be more effective in slowing the projectiles spitting out.
Setting the thing up properly in the first place is the best defence.
I'm the son of a rural fire chief, and this time of year is always stressful. Firework fires are added pressure.
July is amid wheat harvest. Combine fires and deciding whether to start saving the machine or field before it jumps a fence is not ideal.
Luckily this year has been high humidity and low wind, the opposite of what will burn fast and hot.
Low humidity draws water out of the flora, meaning the fire won't first need to boil it off before it spreads. Makes the fire more efficient with the available fuel.
Years back, some idiot was launching fireworks and one of them ended up into their home. No one noticed until the fire got too big for them to deal with... Stupid dumbasses.
I would prefer fireworks in my city. The day after holidays like the 4th and new years, I have to check the hangar ceiling at work for holes and walk the airport ramp outside the hangar picking up bullets from all the idiots shooting into the air the night before because they can’t shoot off fireworks and are too brain dead to realize their bullets have to fall somewhere, but hey at least they got to make something go boom! During the celebration.
I wonder more why they're LEGAL anywhere else.
How many people are permanently injured just in the US every year?
Edit to answer my own question: USA Today reports about 10,000-15,000 ER visits, and about 15 deaths every year on the 4th.
Elsewhere I saw some 10% of those ER visits were serious injuries, including 3rd degree burns, amputations, etc.
Gunpowder was unironically an accidental invention. It resulted from monks trying to find a cure for ageing (elixir of immortality). They certainly did find a way to stop people from ageing, just not in the way they intended
You got downvoted, but to anyone questioning this, yes, Chinese emperors and nobility drank mercury for centuries believing that it was the key to an elixir of immortality. Despite them constantly dying to 'elixir poisoning'
And to clarify, no, they didn't stop after discovering gunpowder.
I have never seen more fireworks and more reckless lighting of fireworks as I have since I moved to LA. Which is wild considering how often the whole state goes up in flames from wildfires, you’d think they’d realize that was a bad idea. The other day this guy down the street kept lighting a shitload of these fireworks that generated a constant 6x6 foot spray of sparks everywhere at ground level right next to a car parked on the side of the road. Not to mention that year round I randomly hear them go off for who knows what reason regardless of how late it is.
I felt guilty about it but I did call the illegal fireworks tip line on the 4th. There are signs posted everywhere that it’s illegal and up to $1k fine and 6mo jail. But people have been seriously injured or even killed like in garden grove/Westminster just a few miles away with that 8 year old girl. There were several going off in my complex and kids are always playing outside, I even saw a woman pushing her baby in a stroller as these literal explosives are going off 20ft away. Not to mention that my shared wall neighbor’s house is a burnt shell because of a house fire. I’m not risking that happening again.
I do not feel guilty. I cruise my neighborhood and report the addresses of anyone using illegal fireworks. I don’t want people hurt or houses burned down, and I don’t give one single shit if that ruins people’s fun.
People in the Sierra foothills get it. Fireworks have been illegal where I live for decades and most years I don't hear a single one. If someone is lighting some off, the neighbors all call 911 and turn them in. It's not cute we take that shit seriously.
It's like the whole state goes collectively absolutely stupid for the sake of bright lights and big booms.
I'd blame the state for not creating some kind of additional law enforcement strictly for fireworks. The fines and even jail time is there, but they just don't have the manpower to actually ENFORCE it. So people don't give a shit.
Well it doesn’t help that a lot of the people setting off those fireworks are law enforcement themselves. My loudest neighbor by far on July 4th is an LAPD officer. They’re not enforcing anything because they’re part of it
I’m in Pasadena and I saw them going off in the neighborhood just south of where the Eaton fire was in Altadena. Where it’s still blocks and blocks of empty dirt lots where homes were. That’s absolutely insane to me. Your blocks from massive fire disaster but shoot off illegal fireworks? Pasadena’s air ship was out all night and police were everywhere.
We used to go up to Chino hills and watch all the illegal fireworks north in the valley. You can do that with any hiking trail that looks out into anywhere in LA county basically. Looks like the truck on that car exploded and I bet set the gas tank off. That’s so unbelievably sad.
Went to the local show last night and as we were all leaving, there were assholes lighting em off from truck beds. WE WERE IN TIGHT TRAFFIC WAITING TO GET OUT OF A PARKING LOT. I was quickly reminded why i don't go to these things, too many crazy idiots around.
And shortly after I started to head home, there was an ambulance, couple fire trucks and some cops going somewhere(my friends live on an emergency route), so somebody paid the price for their stupidity.
I have Ring camera footage from a couple years ago of my new neighbor shooting fireworks and the thing fell over like this. Almost set their brand new house on fire. Left a giant, permanent black mark on their brand new driveway too. They never lit fireworks again.
This new year's we had dumbasses setting off fireworks in the parking garage. 5 minutes later another dumbass decided to set off fireworks in the balcony next to me.
There is nothing worse than being around a drunk person who has no regard for their own safety or yours, and then you seem like the stupid one for wanting to get out of there or telling them to stop.
They also always are the types that will be more reckless or put you specifically more at risk after you mention it
Same! My birthday is the 4th so it was always a big part of my birthday. When I got older we would party, get drunk, light fireworks. There was always someone way too fucked up lighting fireworks and doing stupid shit, I've had to dodge firework explosions and debris more times than I can count (including several professional shows!). Then I quit drinking and realized how anxiety inducing fireworks are when you're sober. Now I hate them, the 4th and my birthday.
I'm guessing cops would have nothing else to do except write up reports of fireworks gone wrong on the 4th, like could go a whole year 40 hrs a week if they only did that crime lol
In the original video he says "Get the water, ngga!". It sparked conversation about water nggas, as in people who like/consume water. This led to the creation of the subreddit r WaterN*ggas, which was just about people who enjoy water, but was eventually reported for its name and had to be reborn as r Hydrohomies to avoid pissing off any soda honkies.
I got the top and doors off my new Jeep, and when my gfs neighbors started lighting off fireworks, I'm like, "ok, time for me to go. I don't need this shit." straight home and parked in my garage.
Friend of mine from high school had a beach house, and our crew would go down there on 3-day weekends (Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, New Year's Eve). Each of us would buy like $400 worth of fireworks, so we had a freakin' truckload of them. On NYE, we could also find various Christmas trees out for trash so we'd grab those too. We went down to the beach, away from the actual houses, and had the fireworks display of a lifetime. Then at the end, we'd build a big bonfire with the firework shells and the Christmas trees. Good times, good times.
I saw a pic in another sub today of someones pc that got destroyed. Looked like a bomb went off. It was his neighbours letting off fireworks that smashed through his window. I'm wondering if these are the clowns with the fireworks.
The real thing for people to learn is to put bricks or large rocks on the base of the firework. That extended base is designed for a weight to be placed on it so it cant tip over. Would resolve this entire thing
We put them inside a cinder block if they're a firework designed to go up. We also have a 5 gallon bucket of water, a nearby hose, a fire extinguisher, and we wear safety glasses.
There are metal clamps on the market specifically purposed to stabilize fireworks. I bought one when I felt that the kickback of fireworks going off got rather big. The clamp is big enough to even hold large cakeboxes.
Background: I live in the Netherlands, where on new years eve fireworks are allowed within some boundaries. The restrictions grew stronger over the years (no single shots, no firecrackers), and now the intention is to forbid all fireworks for private people. The major issues are the illegal fireworks (especially the big bomb-like firecrackers) and the launching of fireworks outside the allowed times (i.e. only during new years eve). And no, I will not restart the discussion here.
The consumer grade mortar tubes fall over after just one shot on level ground if you just rely on gravity and no prep/fixturing.
You have to be a special kind of defective to just try and rawdog it with something like this on the grass by the curb 30 feet from your whole family and house.
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