TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Got a passion for fire, sparks and rockets? Well, it’s the right season for fireworks to fly and colors to light the sky. What you may not know is that July 4 is one of only three legal days to launch fireworks in Florida.
A law signed in 2020 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis created some clarifications on what days of the year you can go nuts and fire off whatever you want.
So, when are you allowed to shoot your shot?
The quick answer: Only three days, July 4, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day.
What’s a firework?
Technically, Florida statutes define a firework as “any combustible or explosive composition or substance or combination of substances or, except as hereinafter provided, any article prepared for the purpose of producing a visible or audible effect by combustion, explosion, deflagration, or detonation.”
It basically means anything that uses explosives to fire up into the sky, using flammable compounds, tablets, or any explosive substances. This also includes blank cartridges and toy cannons where explosives are used, and the types of balloons which need fire to propel them.
Specific fireworks that meet these definitions, as defined by law, include:
- Firecrackers
- Torpedoes
- Skyrockets
- Roman candles
- Dago Bombs
The statutes also say that “fireworks” don’t include sparklers approved by the Division of the State Fire Marshal of the Department of Financial Services.
Toy pistols, toy guns, toy canes, and other “devices” where paper caps containing “25 hundredths grains or less of explosive compounds are used” as long as a hand can’t come into contact with the cap when they explode, and toy pistol paper caps containing 20 hundredths of grains of explosive mixture are all fine all year long.
So, pop-its, snaps, and other tiny TNT boxes are fine, and so are snake or glow worms, smoke devices, trick noisemakers, party poppers, booby traps, trick matches, a cigarette load, and auto burglar alarms are all fine to buy all year.