Let's celebrate the 4th of July another way
July 03, 2025
The following open letter is posted here with consent of the author.
Honorable Council Members and staff,
It is that time of year again for me to respectfully ask that we permanently eliminate the use of fireworks in Davis.
Now is the time to NOT enter into another contract to convert our tax money into terrifying explosions and toxic smoke in 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026* and beyond. (*please don’t make me cross out another and send this again next year)
It is a disservice to our community to purposefully add air and noise pollution, litter and fire danger. Better, cleaner, safer ways to spend public funds include: Dancing, drone shows, musical performances or just free drinks and ice cream. How can we declare a climate emergency and then pay money to purposefully pollute the air merely for the entertainment of a few? We should not be celebrating a prettied-up depiction of war when there are genuine bombs currently “bursting in air” and killing people in real conflicts, using American-made bombs. The noise and pollution from a fireworks show is terrifying and deadly for the animals that live with us, and for wildlife. Your choice of patriotic entertainment is not appropriate in this era and this climate and with the knowledge we have.
Other communities are managing to move away from this polluting spectacle. I’m running out of patience with the “other forms of entertainment are more expensive” mantra. Because supplying a full contingent of security and emergency personnel, plus the money for fireworks is also “more expensive” than not doing the fireworks show. But somehow, doing this destructive thing is deemed an appropriate use of sparse (we’re constantly told) tax money.
Offer free (locally-made) ice cream. Offer free (local) live musical performances. Offer daylight fun that doesn’t terrify, injure and kill other things. Please spend my tax money more responsibly in a way that terrifies nobody.
A final ask: Refrain from sending out patronizing official notices that seek to instruct me on how to protect my dog from this city-sponsored terrorism. There is no way to prevent her reaction: trembling, drooling and fearing for her life. I know how to take care of my dog. And there is no place in my home where she feels safe when the fireworks go off. She is terrified of the feel of them, as well as the sound.
Please, let’s find an appropriate way for Davis to Celebrate our country’s independence next year. Burning up money and resources to celebrate war and endangering everybody is not the way.
Darell Dickey
I hate it when people immediately politicize tragedy and death, but I have to in this case.
I looked online and around 130 people have been killed in commercial-grade firework factory/storage/launch deaths in the US in the past several decades in the U.S., not to mention who-knows-how-many worldwide in factories that ship to the U.S. The possibly eight dead in Yolo, I'm guessing mostly blue collar workers, all in the name of "family fun" ?
I've always loved fireworks, and Christmas lights. A few years ago a friend was telling me about all the trauma to animals from fireworks. It didn't sink in immediately - 'yeah, but, they are fun'.
But I remembered that large brown dog I saw run terrified down my street and onto the railroad tracks years ago - heading for . . . Sacramento? Right after that Davis City celebration event that used to have fireworks. Several people reported their dogs bolting that evening, some jumping fences their owners didn't know they could jump.
I went to watch the Davis fireworks show for 4th of July a couple of years ago after talking to my friend. Instead of bright colors, I felt the suffering of dogs. I saw birds flying away when the should have been sleeping. I thought of that brown dog . . .
I was done. The joy is gone. And fireworks displays are a recreation of a victorious battle that glorifies war. Even when seemingly justified or for the purpose of community protection or liberation, no one should ever actually *glorify* war if we ever hope to live in a world more free of armed conflict.
This is a chance for Davis to make a difference that actually could catch on and slowly spread, if we do this right. But to have a chance to do it right, we actually have to do it.
So when you go to the Community Park this year and watch the fireworks, tell your children about the eight dead warehouse workers who gave their lives so they could be free . . . I mean so we could watch a fireworks show. Tell your kids about the hundreds of traumatized dogs in Davis cowering under beds and traquilized on meds -- and the millions countrywide.
Davis, it's over . . . we are no longer children. And drone shows can be amazing.
Think of that brown dog, running east down the railroad tracks in terror . . .
Posted by: Alan C. Miller | July 03, 2025 at 09:11 AM
Thank you for sharing your on-point letter, Darell. I especially love your point that we could take the money we are currently spending on fireworks and do all sorts of fun and awesome family and community friendly things that didn't cause all of the harms that fireworks cause.
ACM, you describe exactly how I think about this. I mean yes, fireworks are cool. I grew up loving them. And if you don't know the harms caused, I get why you wouldn't see the issue. But once you know, how do you keep enjoying them? How do you have pleasure knowing that your pleasure is at the direct expense of others (human and nonhuman)? It's a mind-boggling lack of empathy.
We have alternatives. Time to adopt them and move on from fireworks. Their time is done.
Posted by: Roberta L. Millstein | July 03, 2025 at 11:10 AM
There's another alternative, at least while Trump is still in office...
Https://patch.com/california/davis/s/jfth0/no-flags-or-fireworks-what-nationwide-july-4-protests-mean-for-ca?
Posted by: Tuvia etc. | July 03, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Thank you Alan and Roberta.
The social media messaging is now in full swing on how we should protect our pets from this expensive, polluting, city-sponsored, tax-payer-funded terrifying spectacle. It is on us, the pet owners to "do the right thing" for our animals. Why isn't that effort instead put into stopping the bad thing? Why is the bad thing just stipulated, since some folks "enjoy" the show? 'Merica! Perhaps we should spend the day shooting at each other too?
Why pretend that there is some magical, sound-proof, concussion-proof place in our homes that can put our pets at ease? The main message is to keep them from running away and getting killed. Not much about their terrifying experience of being trapped in a place when clearly they just desperately wish to flee. That's what they're programmed to do. Get away from the danger. My dog has been found quivering and drooling in the bathtub. Or she'll cram herself in the back of a closet or behind a toilet. Alan's brown dog moment plays out in my house EVERY time somebody sets off fireworks in town. Doesn't even have to be very close. Raise your hand if you enjoy watching a loved one suffer. Raise the other if you enjoy it more when the source of suffering is 100% optional.
And.... Even if we pretend that our domesticated animals can be "protected" from this, what are the wild animals expected to do?
Fireworks were fun for maybe 100 years after we used war to gain our independence. Can we just get over it now, and enjoy what we have instead of reliving the bombs bursting in air? Didn't we celebrate war enough on Flag Day of this year? We should never get comfortable with bombs exploding.
Posted by: darell | July 03, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Apparently you have not been in San Francisco on the 4th. I was there last year. It was five hours of major fireworks. The city's show was terrific and the homeowner fireworks exceeded the city's show. Cannot understand why Davis is opposed to this when San Francisco is not.
Posted by: Doug Walker | July 03, 2025 at 11:46 AM
"Alan M: The possibly eight dead in Yolo, I'm guessing mostly blue collar workers, all in the name of "family fun" ?
(Perhaps illegal immigrants - doing the jobs that Americans "don't want to do"?)
Truth be told, there is no need for these types of celebrations at all. I'm guessing that more than half the population of any given city doesn't even attend. What is now Davis and California didn't even exist when the country was formed.
And (this is only a semi-serious comment), but I understood that Davis doesn't even have kids anymore. (Parents can't afford Davis, right?) After all, firework celebrations are really geared toward families. Are the people who will occupy Bretton Woods going to be upset if there's no fireworks (other than for their visiting/non-resident grandkids)?
Also, aren't we simultaneously (on other days) told that what is now the U.S. was stolen from tribes? If so, why are we celebrating it? (Not just by England, but also by France, Spain, Mexico, Russia, etc.)? (Leaving aside the tribes that took territory from each other.)
Columbus Day has already come under such scrutiny - why not Independence Day as well (which was actually driven by a Proposition 13-style tax revolt)?
Posted by: Ron O | July 03, 2025 at 11:51 AM
In any case, the FAR BIGGER problem (in Woodland and elsewhere) are the illegal fireworks that residents themselves set off. And again, the "safe-and-sane" fireworks that they sell all over town provide cover when setting off the illegal fireworks.
There's a significant contingent of residents who see nothing wrong with this, and actively participate in it.
I'm not talking about firecrackers, though there's plenty of those as well. I'm talking about expensive aerial bombs that shake windows. Powerful enough to possibly hurt or kill someone.
And although it's entirely-predictable, the city seems unable or unwilling (or both) to stop it.
Official fireworks (e.g., from the city) are not nearly as concerning (until they end up blowing up a warehouse).
Posted by: Ron O | July 03, 2025 at 12:58 PM
RM say, "And if you don't know the harms caused, I get why you wouldn't see the issue. But once you know, how do you keep enjoying them?"
In a nutshell
Posted by: Alan C. Miller | July 03, 2025 at 05:30 PM
Although its my understanding that the original use of fireworks, by the Chinese who invented them, was for dramatic colorful displays during celebrations; and the Chinese (pre-colonial) did not use gunpowder and associated explosive chemical powders for use in weapons. Perhaps also in modern times not always a celebration of war, but just a dramatic colorful display used in celebrations.
Posted by: Jim Trask | July 03, 2025 at 06:39 PM
I always thought that drone shows were prohibitively expensive or difficult to put on, which is why fireworks shows made sense in the battle between the two. At least as much sense as an event that could cause a fire and traumatizes certain animals and people. I'm not against tradition, and July 4th has a lot of great traditions--picnics, barbecues, parades, hot dogs, baseball, flags and celebrating the history and ideals of this country.
But if Celebrate Davis can afford drones, and that show was excellent, I think it is time. Kids love the explosions in the skies? My guess is that kids will love the drones in the skies. It's a fun and rich tradition to watch the rockets and hear the salutes? Not for everyone, and unlike with a drone show, people (and animals, of course) can't always avoid the noise easily. Plus, we...own the drones, no? Aren't they reusable? Couldn't we put on 98% of the exact same show as a month ago?
It's time. Not just because they symbolize war, not just because they're loud and dangerous, but because something better has come along.
Posted by: Steve Geller | July 03, 2025 at 07:01 PM
I will hold a quiet vigil at home with my two cats tomorrow night. I will grieve those who lost their lives in the fireworks explosion in Esparto and the families and friends who face life without them. I
I will grieve the thousands being killed and injured - many young children - in
Gaza and elsewhere around the world.
I will pray for the many animals - domesticated and wild - who will consume to be terrified and possibly killed.
I call for our so-called leaders - local and national - to declare tomorrow a day of mourning, a night of quiet protest and prayer for the political violence - so often masked with lies and cruelty that infects our country and endangers everyone around the world and earth itself - to end. — Christine Fry
Posted by: Christine Fry | July 03, 2025 at 07:51 PM
"But once you know, how do you keep enjoying them?"
The same reason that anyone keeps pursuing activities that they know have some negative aspects for themselves or others - they think that the benefit outweighs the drawbacks. You can put all kinds of things in this category.
And when it comes to other people, they think that those people "shouldn't" be opposed. An example that comes to mind is off-road vehicle enthusiasts (and the resistance they sometimes experience), on public land.
Or people that engage in "unnecessary" activities that contribute to global warming. (All kinds of activities in that category, as well. Which I suspect that ALL of us engage in.)
In any case, it increasingly appears that at least some of the missing people (from the explosion) are likely dead, from the news reports I'm seeing. The fact that their families are looking for them (combined with the lack of obvious bodies) must mean that they're not going to find intact bodies.
Anyone else notice the name of the company involved with this - "Devastating Pyrotechnics"?
Well, maybe this will at least have some longer-lasting impact, regarding fireworks (both personal and civic). I guess we'll see.
On a related note, I see in the news that someone else died from fireworks in Southern California.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/simi-valley-explosion-fireworks-house/story?id=123467403
Posted by: Ron O | July 03, 2025 at 07:55 PM
Several fireworks-related building explosions this year:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/simi-valley-explosion-fireworks-house/story?id=123467403
As I had suspected but didn't want to say until there was confirmation, most of those killed appear to be from the Hispanic community in the area. There is heartbreaking footage of a young woman in the above vid whose partner and two of his brother's were killed in the warehouse, and he took the job because she is pregnant and his was on his first work day.
There is a great Hispanic community in the Capay Valley just east towards Woodland. I see some of them each year at Hoes Down Festival. I suspect that the people working there are in the community that also works agriculture much of the year.
Posted by: Alan C. Miller | July 04, 2025 at 01:15 PM
This is so very sad.
Here is some additional info from KCRA (https://www.kcra.com/article/esparto-fireworks-property-not-zoned-for-it/65293367 ) :
The fireworks warehouse was using a property that was never zoned for fireworks storage. It is zoned for what is called "Agricultural Intensive."
To store anything other than agricultural equipment, the property owner, Sam Machado, would have had to have gotten a Conditional Use Permit from the Yolo County Planning Commission. Yet the Planning Commission has confirmed to KCRA 3 that no such permit exists.
The facility housed fireworks for a company called Devastating Pyrotechnics and is also the listed address for BlackStar Fireworks.
Property owner Sam Machado is a lieutenant with the Yolo County Sheriff. The owner of BlackStar, who is also an employee of Devastating Pyrotechnics, Craig Cutright, is a volunteer firefighter with the Esparto Fire Protection District.
Posted by: Roberta L. Millstein | July 04, 2025 at 02:01 PM
"Property owner Sam Machado is a lieutenant with the Yolo County Sheriff."
I'm guessing that "is" will soon be "was".
Just heard that the Lake Tahoe fireworks are cancelled because the barge loaded with the ordinance sank! The universe is sending California a message - is it listening?
Posted by: Alan C. Miller | July 04, 2025 at 07:50 PM
Well, it looks like 7 bodies have been found at the site. I'm wondering if they had a chance to escape when it was first burning, before it exploded. Some interesting information regarding the owner of "Devastating Fireworks" as well.
The entire thing sounds like something out of a third world country - perhaps we're becoming one?
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/yolo-county-fireworks-explosion-company-license-20422507.php
Posted by: Ron O | July 06, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Not a third world country, but Yolo may be a third world county.
Posted by: Alan C. Miller | July 06, 2025 at 04:41 PM