Snoqualmie is already a safe place, with a nice sense of community, said several residents at the Jan. 12 City Council meeting. It doesn’t need a ban on some fireworks to make it safer.

James Hunter, speaking to the council during discussion of a proposed amendment to the city fireworks code, said he’d moved to the area about a year ago, and he and his family very much enjoyed the gathering in their neighborhood on July 4.

His daughters, he said, “were having fun in an environment that I felt safe in,” and safety was foremost in people’s minds during the fireworks.

“The children (were) all standing on the sidewalk, and the fireworks (were) all being set off in the middle of the street,” he said.

Reasoning that no one would set off fireworks that could burn their own homes down, or leave the litter from the display in the streets the next day, he told the council, “It seems to me, if you’re going to set off fireworks, probably the safest place to set them off yourself, is on the street in front of your own home.”

Hunter was one of five people who spoke on the proposed amendment, which would ban aerial fireworks, and significantly increase the city fines for possession and discharge of fireworks.

Another resident, Derek Peterson, talked about the Fourth of July celebration bringing neighborhoods together, and emphasized the need for better education.

His neighbors gather every year, he said, including last year. “And that was a lot of fun. Then we saw on the fourth of July that a house burned down, incredibly unfortunate. What’s also interesting is that it burned down because of an illegal firework, a bottle rocket.”

Snoqualmie Fire Chief Mark Correira confirmed that the cause of the July 4, 2014, fire was determined to be “an aerial firework” in the fire investigator’s report, and that remnants of several bottle rockets, which are illegal, were found in the back yard of the home. The accidental fire started when a wood shake in the middle or rear section of the roof ignited, he said, and the fire spread.

“One of the challenges is that (fireworks) burn so hot,” Correira said.

The Snoqualmie Fire Department department provides a free list of the fireworks effects that are legal in the state, and those that are illegal — mainly bottle rockets, firecrackers and most home-made or altered fireworks. The list is available on the department website, http://www.ci.snoqualmie.wa.us/CityDepartments/Fire.aspx.

Peterson said a lot of people don’t realize that some of their fireworks might be illegal.

“When I moved here I didn’t know that bottle rockets were actually illegal,” he said, “…not just against the city, but the state laws. … Education could have been better.”

Resident Charlene Lewalski supported limiting the discharge of fireworks, though, expressing her fear that someone will get hurt.

“In my neighborhood alone, the fireworks display was two hours last year. Two hours,” she said to the council. “The streets are so narrow and the houses are so close together that I do not feel, personally, that it is safe.”

The division in public comment was similar to the split in a recent telephone survey that Snoqualmie conducted. Of 300 respondents, just over half, 52 percent supported a complete ban on fireworks, said Correira, who presented the results to the public safety committee at its Jan. 15 meeting.

Snoqualmie had been considering a change in its fireworks code before the 2014 fire, said Snoqualmie’s public safety committee chairperson Heather Munden, but didn’t begin actual discussions, along with public and city staff testimony on an amendment until last July.

Currently, the city allows fireworks from 9 a.m. to midnight July 4, and from 10 p.m. Dec. 31, to 12:30 a.m. Jan. 1. There is no restriction on the type of fireworks, except that they must be legal in Washington.

The changes considered, Munden said, “ran the full spectrum from an ‘all-out ban’ of all fireworks to ‘no change.’”

She added that she was “a proponent of the safe and responsible use of fireworks,” and “I felt an all-out ban was too restrictive, while doing nothing was not an option.”

The amendment, she said, is a realistic compromise, allowing ground-effect fireworks like sparklers and fountains, while enabling police to be sure which fireworks being discharged are legal and which aren’t —all aerial effects.

Correira, who advised the public safety committee on the amendment, agreed. “I think that this is a logical, feasible balance… especially with how very close houses are located on the ridge,” he said.

To replace the individuals’ fireworks shows, the city has also discussed hosting a professional pyrotechnics display for Independence Day. This idea got a boost at the council meeting, when Charlie Salmon, pastor of Church on the Ridge, suggested that his church could host or be a primary sponsor of the show.

The Snoqualmie City Council did not vote on the amendment, but referred it to the public safety committee for a formal recommendation. The committee met Jan. 15 and voted to recommend it, as-is, for adoption.

The council will re-address the issue at its Feb. 9 meeting, but will continue to take public testimony regarding fireworks until then.

If approved, the aerial-fireworks ban would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2016.