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The Alameda County Board of Supervisors recently adopted a new ordinance aimed at curbing illegal fireworks in unincorporated parts of the county, expanding liability beyond users to property owners and authorizing fines of up to $1,000 for repeat violations.
The ordinance, which will take effect on July 2, just two days before the Fourth of July holiday, works to strengthen state laws that ban the use of both dangerous fireworks and “safe and sane” fireworks.
The legislation will apply to all people in unincorporated Alameda County, such as Ashland, Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fairview, Hayward Acres, San Lorenzo and Sunol.
The ordinance establishes a new administrative penalty system, allowing county officials to issue fines of $500 for a first violation, $750 for a second violation and up to $1,000 for third and subsequent violations.
The new policy will also expand accountability of firework-related crimes to property owners, tenants and hosts responsible for allowing firework activity to occur on property they own, rent, occupy or control.
In May, the ordinance was presented to Alameda County’s Board of Supervisors, following up on conversations between the Sheriff’s Office and local municipal advisory councils about how to curb the increased use of fireworks in unincorporated Alameda County in recent years.
The policy proposal stated that the Sheriff’s Office responded to 644 fireworks-related calls for service from June 4 to July 6 in 2025, an amount that exceeded service responders’ capability to adequately respond to all calls.
The policy also said that illegal fireworks pose real danger to “public health and safety.”
In May 2024, a San Francisco Civil Grand Jury released a report that revealed the booming sound of firework explosions can frighten or traumatize thousands of pets, small children and people with autism and dementia, and can have especially negative effects on adults suffering from PTSD.
Considering this danger, the Sheriff’s Office felt it necessary to create a “fireworks suppression plan” that will ideally work to decrease the number of firework-related crimes during critical periods for fireworks, like the upcoming Fourth of July weekend.
— Story by Adam Sutro, Bay City News
