Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/06/la-cityscape-with-fireworks-go.html
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Well, I don’t know about you guys but I, for one, would be up to start a new life in the off-world colonies.
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You can buy fireworks in CA?
Not legally. I don’t know how or why the market got so flooded with illegal fireworks this year (and big ones at that), but they have been going off every night in SoCal for over a month now. 4th of July was like nothing I’ve ever seen my entire life in terms of the quantity of explosions going on literally nonstop for about 4 hours. It was surreal.
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Aside from the temps, LA would be a fun place to live. Good luck down there with the fires and heat this summer. Stay safe!
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I do love a nice bang. Freaked our cats out (continues to freak our cats out - LA fireworks are a summer-long phenomenon now) and an 8-unit apartment building in Northridge burned down, but dang does it look cool.
It’s because all the official displays got COVIDed, and so the suppliers cut their losses by selling their stuff to private citizens.
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No fireworks are legal in most of California and even in the few places they are legal, skyrockets and firecrackers are not. I live in suburban San Jose (near San Francisco) and the evening of July 4th sounded like a war zone. (The month leading up was also noisy, but not as bad.)
I pity any vets with PTSD.
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Here near Pico Fairfax it was a literal non stop barrage for hours.
The fireworks were okay, but the people I saw blowing them off in my neighborhood were drunk to the gills and were clearly endangering themselves, as well as anyone else near them.
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All those fingers getting blown off…
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“After”
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Hey, if Tucker Carlson has decided it’s over, it’s over.
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I’ll be sure to tell that to the continuing influx of sick and dead folks that hasn’t yet ceased…
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Real and fictional dystopias converge.
Utterly insane. I wonder if it was like that in my neighborhood. It sounded like that, but I wasn’t in any position to go outside and see what it looked like, because I was too busy trying to keep my dog from destroying something (or himself). Certainly a lot of professional-grade rockets being set off that I’d never ever heard before.
I believe some localities allow some “safe and sane” fireworks still, but all fireworks are illegal in LA and most other urban areas. These particular fireworks on display here are illegal everywhere in the state. Ever since fireworks got completely banned where I am in the SF Bay Area, they’ve only become more popular though, increasing every year.
(I still can’t get over the perverse irony that the one place where you still can buy any fireworks tends to be rural, wildfire-prone areas.)
Fireworks display companies are absolutely selling them off, nationwide. The story behind it is even more insane than just being a result of covid canceling official displays. Due to a variety of factors last year - the fireworks almost all come from China so there was the possibility of tariffs, an explosion at a fireworks manufacturer, covid closing factories and ports and stopping shipments - it looked like there would be a massive shortage, so US companies got desperate and made back-up orders. Then all the orders got shipped before they could cancel them, so these companies had double the usual amount of fireworks, just in time to have 90%+ of their displays get canceled. On top of which the specialized storage requirements for fireworks make them quite expensive, and there’s no guarantee they would be able to use them next year, either.
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I said in the 4th of July thread of Robs:
New conspiracy theory, China manufactured Covid19 to boost fireworks sales.
Seriously. Wow.
I stayed home all day, but I went out about 10pm and it was was literally thick with smoke and the smell of sulfur hung in the air. Granted I live in a bit of a depression, but I don’t ever recall hearing so many fire works all around. I guess with most of the big shows canceled, everyone went out and over did it.
That drone footage looks damn neat, though.
Actually, it depends on the city. I know that the two cities adjacent to Long Beach sell and allow fireworks.
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Same here in suburban MD. The subject has more-or-less taken over Nextdoor. Apparently it’s increased all around the country:
I’d say in terms of the quality (or… magnitude, depending on one’s PoV), as well. It was unnerving to more-or-less drive through it, though I didn’t not like it. Driving from MD into NE DC (near Fort Totten), Riggs Rd. crosses a sort-of top of a valley, and when I crossed that, the things were going off as far as the eye could see.
According to someone in the linked article,
The fireworks Heckman is seeing aren’t professional. Retail aerial fireworks are capped at under 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter and burst at just under 200 feet (60 meters). Professional fireworks are wider and can explode hundreds of feet higher.
He also says “that can’t happen, it would be a felony!” which doesn’t really sound too convincing, but if we take his word for it that consumer-grade tops out at 200 feet , that fairly much describes what I saw – maybe the height of 3 utility poles, and really not much higher than the surrounding buildings.
I agree. What I was seeing were much larger than past years, but no where near the size or height you’d normally see at a professional display. But the sheer quantity of mortars in general and the M80 or larger blasts I was constantly hearing was a new phenomenon.
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This is what I hope for when I go out to view a meteor shower: constant, non-stop activity.
Instead, I wait for minutes and blink just when one goes by.
The two should be switched. Citizen fireworks go off every minute or so (Look! There’s one!), and the meteor showers have consistent, brilliant payoff (minus the Big One, of course).
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