BILLINGS - 2022 marks the 30^th Independence Day holiday fireworks have been illegal within the city limits of Billings.

It became city code on April 27, 1992

And with the patriotic holiday comes the closure of the Billings Rims.

The fire department has been closing off that portion of the city since 1985.

"The overarching thought is the Billings Fire Department and the City doesn't want anyone to have fun. Nothing is further from the truth," Billings Firefighter Cameron McCamley told radio host Scott Fredricks during an interview on KBEAR on Monday morning.

Like all laws and safety practices, these come with reason.

"Back in the 80's they closed the Rims due to multiple fires. When our firefighters were up there on the Rims, folks shooting fireworks were knocking off rocks and debris onto the firemen trying to fight those fires. That's why they closed them," McCamley explained.

A fire department document reviewing the history of the Rims closure shows in 1984, there were 50 firework related fires on the Billings Rims. When the Rims were closed the following year, there were only four.

Across the city, there were 107 firework related fires during the Independence Day season from June 24 to July 11^th in 1984. That number dropped to 30 when the Rims closed over the holiday in 1985.

Fire isn't the only concern.

"Roughly a dozen times a year, the Billings Fire Department goes on a rims rescue, where somebody falls off the rims. It's a very labor-intensive process that takes a lot of manpower, a lot of equipment, and if somebody happens to be up there and they fall off and there's cars lining the rims, it's going to be very, very difficult for us to be able to get down to them," said McCamley.

However, fireworks are legal outside of Billings city limits in Yellowstone County, as long as we don't enter Stage 2 fire restrictions. As of Thursday morning, the county was under Stage 1 restrictions.

Early in 2022, the question of allowing fireworks in Billings during the 4^th of July holiday was raised by a city councilmember and member of city administration. Both Billings Police Chief Rich St. John and Fire Marshal Bill Tatum rejected the idea out of concern over an increase in fires and injuries.

Because fireworks are illegal in city limits, the person igniting fireworks is liable for property damage and/or injury. If the City of Billings legalized fireworks within city limits, the liability would rest on the City.

Chief St. John's department is responsible for enforcing the ordinance.

Anyone caught igniting fireworks will receive a citation and all fireworks will be confiscated.

But even that is a challenge for officers because they need to observe a violation to write a citation unless a complainant wants to bear witness and file a complaint.

Fireworks are considered anything that's combustible. That includes the smaller items like sparklers, snakes, and smoke bombs.

To view the full city code on fireworks, click here.

View a map of the Billings city limits boundary by clicking here.

Fire Marshal Tatum also shared the following list of highlights from a study published by the Consumer Product Safety Commission:

• CPSC staff received reports of 12 non-occupational, fireworks-related deaths during 2019. Seven of the deaths were associated with misuse of fireworks, 2 deaths were associated with fireworks device malfunction (late ignition), and 3 incidents were associated with unknown circumstances. Reporting of fireworks-related deaths for 2019 is not complete, and the number of deaths in 2019 should be considered a minimum.

• Fireworks were involved with an estimated 10,000 injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments during calendar year 2019 (95 percent confidence interval 7,100 - 12,900). The estimated rate of fireworks-related, emergency department-treated injuries in the United States is 3.1 per 100,000 individuals.

• There is not a statistically significant trend in estimated emergency department-treated, fireworks related injuries from 2004-2019.

• An estimated 7,300 fireworks-related injuries (or 73 percent of the total estimated fireworks related injuries in 2019) were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments during the 1-month special study period between June 21, 2019 and July 21, 2019 (95 percent confidence interval 4,700-9,900).

• Of the 7,300 estimated fireworks-related injuries sustained, 66 percent were to males and 34 percent were to females.

• Children younger than 15 years of age accounted for 36 percent of the estimated fireworks-related injuries. Similar to last year, nearly half of the estimated emergency department-treated, fireworks-related injuries were to individuals younger than 20 years of age. Children 0 to 4 years of age had the highest estimated rate of emergency department-treated, fireworks-related injuries (5.3 injuries per 100,000 people). Older teens, 15 to 19 years of age, had the second-highest estimated rate (4.4 injuries per 100,000 people).

• There were an estimated 900 emergency department-treated injuries associated with sparklers and 400 with bottle rockets.

• There were an estimated 800 emergency department-treated injuries associated with firecrackers. Of these, an estimated 24 percent were associated with small firecrackers, 16 percent with large firecrackers, 3 percent with illegal firecrackers, and the remaining 57 percent were associated with firecrackers of an unspecified size.

• The parts of the body most often injured were hands and fingers (an estimated 30 percent); legs (an estimated 23 percent); eyes (an estimated 15 percent); head, face, and ears (an estimated 15 percent); and arms (an estimated 10 percent).

• Fifty-eight percent of the emergency department-treated injuries were burns. Burns were the most common injury to hands, fingers, arms, and legs.

• Approximately 87 percent of the victims were treated at a hospital emergency department and then released. An estimated 12 percent of patients were treated and transferred to another hospital or admitted to the hospital.

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