An explosive idea

Medicine Bow recently demonstrated what we at the Saratoga Sun feel is a good idea.

The town allowed children and adults alike to play with fireworks.

The reason this was allowed is that the county, despite having a fireworks ban, cedes authority to a municipality to have fireworks if set off by appropriately trained individuals.

Medicine Bow Fire Chief Peter Andrews asked for, and got, permission from the Medicine Bow Town Council to attend Fireworks School.

Fireworks School is a two-day program that teaches the proper safety techniques for handling the colorful explosives.

The Medicine Bow Town Council then picked an appropriate location and arranged to have several fire trucks on hand for the event.

Individuals, including children, had what seemed to be a good time playing with sparklers and the like before the town had their own fireworks display.

We at the Sun feel this is a great idea that can fairly easily be implemented by all of our local towns.

The upshot is that individuals would have a safe and supervised location to use their fireworks.

This supervision would reduce risk for every community that implements it.

Every year around Independence Day you hear fireworks going off in local neighborhoods. Not only is this illegal, it is unsafe.

Wyoming is a very dry state and it would only take a lingering spark to burn down a residence. But those arguments do very little to deter those who are going to set off fireworks anyway.

Implementing a program along the lines of what Medicine Bow does reduces that risk and allows those who are determined to run their own little shows a place to go.

It could even end up being a spectator affair of sorts. Who doesn’t enjoy watching kids running around with sparklers?

This kind of event could also help bring communities together as children play together while learning how to responsibly handle fireworks.

We at the Sun believe that most firemen are more interested in preventing fires than risking injury and damage fighting a fire that results from fireworks.

Most of the towns in the region have readily defensible places where this type of thing could occur.

It should be noted that some towns charge a minimal fee to participants which could either be used to defray costs or help with fundraising efforts.

The Saratoga Sun urges our town councils to at least consider following Medicine Bow’s lead and begin preparations for next year’s July fourth celebrations.