Months After Duarte Bans Personal Sales Of Fireworks, City Puts On A Show

DUARTE (CBSLA)  -- Last November, residents of Duarte voted to ban the sale of fireworks.

That doesn't mean the people there don't like things that go boom. The use of personal fireworks was more out of caution and fear about the potential damage they could do left in the hands of amateurs.

As CBS2/KCAL9 reporter Jake Reiner found out a lot of people didn't mind that fireworks were left in the hands of professionals.

The show lasted about 20 minutes and featured a live band.

The measure to ban sales of fireworks passed by a little more than three percent, the reactions were mostly positive, Reiner found.

But they were also mixed.

"For my family and my kids, I like it. I love it, I like that they did this whole thing," said Fabiola Renteria.

"It used to be fun because we used to always wait 'til that day for your parents to come home to go get the fireworks. Since it's banned, it kinda sucks," says Kurt Scoby.

The city says people were worried a sparkler in the wrong hands could spark another wildfire like the Fish Fire of 2016, which torched more than 5,000 acres.

"We take it very seriously. We have a $1,000 fine here in our community for people caught using legal or illegal fireworks in our community," says Duarte Deputy City Manager and Public Information Officer Karen Herrera.

Stephanie Ramirez and her Duarte High School cheerleaders used to use legal fireworks to raise money for the program.

They still found enough to cheer about Wednesday night at Duarte's inaugural fireworks event.

"Instead of doing the fireworks stands we're doing the celebration and having the opportunity for the kids to fundraise out here," said Ramirez.

One of the questions the city has been getting is why do this tonight instead of tomorrow on July 4th?

The city says because it's their first crack at this type of show, they wanted to be respectful of the surrounding cities who have had long-running July 4th celebrations