The number of fires started by fireworks on Independence Day 2022 severely overtaxed our first responders on Travis County, and at least one family lost their home. Fireworks fans want to celebrate our nation, fireworks vendors want to continue to make money, those with sensitive pets and some forms of PTSD want to not be terrified in their own homes, and our first responders just want to be able to keep us all safe. In the current situation where fireworks bans, where they even exist, are not enforced and therefore ignored, the only people who are happy are the vendors and buyers.

There is a way to balance the scales a bit, and give everyone most of what they want: set aside celebration sites where private individuals can set off fireworks on and around Independence Day and New Year's Eve, away from settled areas and with firefighters and EMTs on hand. Ban fireworks everywhere else in Travis County except for community shows.

If the Commissioners enact this plan, vendors can continue to make a living. Individuals who want to can celebrate with fireworks; not at home, but with the added enjoyment of others' fireworks and the added safety of having first responders on site. Almost everyone else can have peace, and even the few who might live next to a celebration site will have somewhere quiet to go; as things stand, there are explosions everywhere on certain holidays. With rigid enforcement for a couple of years, people will adjust to the law, and first responders will get more of what they want: to keep us all safe.

If Commissioners do not act, we'll continue to have the same problems: more acrimony among neighbors, more traumatized animals and people, more property damages and injuries, and perhaps even a death.

So please act, for the good of everyone.