RISKY BUSINESS; FIREWORKS BEST LEFT TO PROFESSIONALS.Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer CAMARILLO - As the blue fabric burned, smoke poured from arm and neck holes of a child-size dress hanging from a post. It was a scary demonstration the Ventura County Fire Department Not to be confused with Ventura Fire Department. The Ventura County Fire Department (VCFD) provides fire protection and emergency response services for the unincorporated areas of Ventura County, California, and for six other cities within the county. used Thursday to show the incendiary danger of fireworks fireworks: see pyrotechnics. fireworks Explosives or combustibles used for display. Of ancient Chinese origin, fireworks evidently developed out of military rockets and explosive missiles and accompanied the spread of military explosives westward to . With Fourth of July Fourth of July, Independence Day, or July Fourth, U.S. holiday, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Celebration of it began during the American Revolution. only days away, the Fire Department used a dry, brushy field at its Regional Training Center at the Camarillo Airport to warn the public about the dangers of at-home fireworks, from a simple sparkler spar·kler n. 1. One, such as a highly polished metallic surface or a virtuoso performer, that sparkles. 2. Informal A diamond. 3. A firework that burns slowly and gives off a shower of sparks. to a powerful M-80. ``If this is your children or your friends,'' said Arson Investigator Scott Quirarte, after a mannequin's hand was torn apart by an M-100 firecracker, ``you're going to have to explain to them why their fingers are gone or why they're blind.'' Quirarte is part of a team that confiscates fireworks throughout the year, not just around Independence Day. In fact, it was a Roman candle that ignited and burned more than 4,000 acres of brush in Ojai in December, resulting in the conviction of two teens on one count each of recklessly starting a fire. Thursday's demonstrations - watermelons violently blown to pieces by fireworks and a model of a wood, shake-shingled roof slowly catching fire - stressed why fireworks are illegal to buy, to possess or to set off anywhere in Ventura County except in the city of Fillmore. ``These devices in the hands of the wrong person, they become victims,'' said Joe Luna, Fire Department public information officer. Luna urged the public to attend sanctioned firework displays set up by professionals, rather than using the kind of illegal backyard fireworks that caused four county fires last July 4. If people do purchase fireworks in Fillmore, Luna said only so-called ``safe and sane'' devices - fireworks that do not explode or leave the ground - are legal. If fireworks do not bear the State Fire Marshal (SFM SFM Sustainable Forest Management SFM Science Fiction Museum (Seattle) SFM Switch Fabric Module (Cisco Systems) SFM Scanning Force Microscope SFM Société Française de Microbiologie ) seal, then they are illegal, he added. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color in Conejo and Simi edition only) Turn a little girl loose with a Fourth of July sparkler, and this is how easy it is for her dress to catch fire, demonstrates Fire Capt. Tom Kruschke. (2 -- 3 -- color in Conejo and Simi edition only) An M-100 firecracker, right, can damage hands and eyes. Above, a watermelon watermelon, plant (Citrullus vulgaris) of the family Curcurbitaceae (gourd family) native to Africa and introduced to America by Africans transported as slaves. Watermelons are now extensively cultivated in the United States and are popular also in S Russia. blown apart by the big bang big bang Model of the origin of the universe, which holds that it emerged from a state of extremely high temperature and density in an explosive expansion 10 billion–15 billion years ago. . Evan Yee/Staff Photographer |
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