A Lawrence police officer confiscated and destroyed these fireworks about 9:30 p.m. July 4, 2015. Officers responded to calls about fireworks near 22nd and New Hampshire streets, where they found a very

Last July 4, a few minutes past 11 p.m., a caller to police dispatch reported that a group was shooting off fireworks in a parking lot near 2900 Harper St. in southeast Lawrence.

When he arrived, Officer Don Hicks saw about 30 people, most of them children, shooting off “large aerial displays,” according to Hicks’ report.

Melinda Henderson, a citizen riding along for the night with Hicks, described the officer creeping up the hill toward the Peaslee Center with his patrol car’s lights off.

Facing the group, he switched on the lights and blew the sirens.

“It was like watching a bunch of roaches scatter,” Henderson said.

One man shouted: “Cops. Run.”

“Most of the children ran east through an open area in the brush,” Hicks wrote in his report. The adults scattered, but “not all got away,” Henderson said.

Among the few grownups and children who stayed behind to talk to Hicks was a man holding a propane torch, standing over a cluster of illegal fireworks, the report said.

Fireworks that police confiscated last July 4 just west of the 2900 block of Harper.

So goes the Fourth of July in Lawrence (and in other communities that have made fireworks illegal), where cops spend most of the day and night chasing scofflaws.

Increased enforcement planned

Last year, Lawrence police received 261 calls about fireworks. They ticketed nine people shooting fireworks — including the torch-wielding man, who paid a $40 fine — and confiscated 45 firework devices.

But this year, the Lawrence City Commission agreed to beef up patrols to penalize more of those who celebrate the birth of our nation through illegal means.

To that end, Lawrence Police Chief Tarik Khatib said he would add two extra officers on Saturday and four extra on Sunday and Monday at a cost that he called “not insignificant.”

With overtime and holiday pay, the four extra officers working July 4 will make $75 per hour. Those working on July 2 and July 3 will be compensated, with overtime pay, at $45 an hour. Adding the extra officers for the holiday weekend will cost the city a total of $4,560.

Besides attempting to better enforce the 14-year-old fireworks ban, Lawrence has been trying to prevent their use by relaying messages about the hazards of fireworks: injury and fires.

The increased enforcement was decided on in May, when a small group of Lawrence residents, including the commander of the local chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars, came to the City Commission on behalf of veterans negatively affected by the random, loud explosions during the Fourth of July.

The city is spreading the message that loud noises and flashing lights can be a trigger for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. It is also warning about the effects on pets and on human health, such as smoke causing complications for those with respiratory problems.

Bomb in the John

Jim King, division chief for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, said firefighters responded to only one fireworks-related call last year.

The department had one truck and two people on call at the Jaycee’s downtown fireworks display when city dispatch received a call about smoke emitting from a porta-potty in the 300 block of Locust Street in North Lawrence.

Because the porta-potty was near, the overtime crew was able to get there quickly.

Firefighters didn’t see flames, but when they opened the door to the toilet, smoke rolled out. It appeared that someone had set off smoke bombs inside, King said.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical has not responded to any significant fireworks-related damage in the past two years, said Fire Chief Mark Bradford. But with the recent hot, dry weather, the risk this year is greater, he said.

Earlier this week, Bradford said he would monitor the weather and determine whether to staff an extra fire truck over the Fourth of July weekend.

Fireworks injuries

In Kansas last year, the number of firework-related injuries decreased from 161 to 137, according to the Kansas Fire Marshal’s data. And in Lawrence and Douglas County over the holiday weekend, no injuries were reported from detonating fireworks.

Firecrackers were the most dangerous fireworks in Kansas last year, injuring 29 people, according to 2015 data provided by the state fire marshal.

The second-most-dangerous fireworks were sparklers, with 20 people injured, according to the data. Sparklers are one of a handful of novelty items Lawrence allows under the ban. The others are: party poppers, snappers, snakes and glow worms, toy caps and toy smoke devices.

“With the novelties, it doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous,” Bradford said. “Even sparklers, we’re talking about 1,000 degrees of molten metal in someone’s hand, and we tell them to light it and wave it around. We can predict someone is going to get burned or hurt.”

Bradford suggested igniting sparklers or other fireworks (where they’re legal) in a driveway or at the curb of a street. He’s encouraging people to read and follow the fireworks instructions, to always supervise children and to have a bucket of water nearby.

Mostly, he suggested, “just use common sense.”

“There’s an increase in the potential when you’re igniting explosives that you’re going to have some type of negative outcome,” Bradford said.

“One thing I always talk about, I use this over and over again, is that if something is predictable, if there’s a predictable outcome, then there’s a method we can prevent it,” he continued. “It’s one of those things it’s not an ‘if’ but a ‘when.’ It’s going to be you or a neighbor injured or your house or a neighbor’s house that burns. It’s not going to surprise me when something like that happens.”

Of the number of people injured last year, 63 percent were age 18 and older. Eighty percent of those injured were male.

‘Intoxicated and antagonistic’

Though Lawrence didn’t see any injuries last year, police were kept busy responding to hundreds of fireworks-related calls from June 30 to July 6 last year. The nine citations they issued were limited, by law, to no more than $200 each.

The nine police reports and citations — obtained by the Journal-World through a Kansas open records request — show that some folks can be a little testy when police catch them blowing up fireworks.

A Lawrence police officer confiscated and destroyed these fireworks about 9:30 p.m. July 4, 2015. Officers responded to calls about fireworks near 22nd and New Hampshire streets, where they found a very

Last Fourth of July, one woman was fined $50 when she eventually took responsibility for a fireworks display in her neighborhood in south Lawrence. A group she was part of had been “intoxicated and antagonistic,” according to a report by Officer Skyler Richardson, and the woman refused to sign the citation.

In another instance, just before midnight on July 3, Officer J. Gardner spotted two men lighting fireworks in the road near 2530 Redbud Lane, according to one report.

As the officer approached the men, they tried to walk away but eventually stopped when ordered to. Another officer arrived to assist as Gardner was writing out the citation and report.

While waiting, one of the men made comments about “moving to Russia,” the report states, and wanting to know what (police) were going to do about “keeping ISIS from ‘hitting Lawrence.'”

When one man was given the ticket, he refused to sign his name and instead wrote an expletive followed by the word “you.”

The men each paid a $50 fine and $60 in court costs, according to municipal court records.

Where they’re legal

Fireworks are illegal in Lawrence, but you don’t have to go far to find places where you can shoot them off. Eudora, Topeka, Kansas City, Kan., and the unincorporated parts of Douglas County and Shawnee County allow them during certain times over the holiday weekend.

In unincorporated Douglas County, fireworks are allowed starting Friday through Monday. People can shoot off fireworks from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 7 a.m. to midnight on Sunday and Monday. Stands are permitted to sell fireworks in the county from Friday through Saturday.

In Eudora, you can shoot fireworks Friday through Monday until midnight, and in Topeka you can use them Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Monday from 8 a.m. to midnight. In Kansas City, Kan., they’re allowed Saturday through Monday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

In unincorporated Shawnee County, fireworks could be ignited 8 a.m. to midnight starting June 27 and going to July 4.

Besides skipping the fines, those Lawrence residents who want to ignite fireworks may want to go outside of city limits to avoid some embarrassment.

When caught July 5 of last year, one man — who had been igniting mortar shells near East 15th Street and Cadet Avenue — asked Officer Matthew Howell, “Did you see that one, it was pretty good, huh?” According to Howell’s report, the man told him he “did not get to set off all of his fireworks yesterday because he was injured by a firework.”

The man was cited and fined $50, with $60 in court costs.