London is looking at updating their fireworks bylaws

I noticed that 67% want consumer fireworks banned. Not a surprise.

Actually it’s the opposite with Fire Departments

As time goes on more and more are backing away from the public’s displays, every city wants the liability off their books

Trust me, I’m a fire fighter, cities are pushing harder and harder to get it out of their wheelhouse

As for the gentleman who’s putting these forward he might be the poor bastard answering the phone when the phone rings with complaints on the other end

In these situations the public is giving the cities ammunition when they shoot them at 2am or outside of regular holidays

Even the environmental data doesn’t match what reporters are claiming and the industry is working on this as we speak.

After dealing with 32 shows on Canada day weekend and dealing with 32 sponsors asking for reasons not to cancel during the Smokey days, the resistance is becoming louder and louder, but we March on

If we use our toys the right way at the right time maybe we get to keep them

Piss off the neighbours enough and complaint ensue,



We also need to be louder ourselves when it comes to this assault on our endevours

It would seem that nobody cares enough to do the poll or didn’t see it.

Another thank you...
Yesterday Powerhouse Fireworks sent out an e-mail blast asking for help on the poll. Jason also has a huge customer list. He has run a very large location in London for many years. They also included a list of city counselors and contact info.
We have slipped to 52% for - 48% against. London needs every keep fireworks vote.

Thanks Jason and your Powerhouse team.

I went through the introduction of a fireworks bylaw in Winnipeg in 2004. The idea to control fireworks usually comes from the administration of the fire department. They have contact with the NFPA which is a USA organization that has standards for fire safety used by Canadian fire departments. The NFPA has a stated goal of eliminating consumer fireworks and they push this idea to all the fire departments that they are in contact with. It is likely that members of the fire department administration will be at the committee meeting. Be aware that the fire department administration is more familiar than you with meeting procedure so educate yourself on this before going into the meeting. Be careful that you say nothing in the meeting that the fire department administration can use against your argument. Remember that for many of the councillors that their experience with fireworks is having people complaining to them about fireworks. All the people who just enjoyed a great fireworks show are not phoning their councillor to tell them how great it was. Convincing the councillors that there are many more people that enjoy fireworks than those that do not like them is probably your most effective strategy.

You might ask at the meeting why there are not similar laws being considered to control candles
Search deaths and injuries for fireworks and candles for the info below from the Federal government.
It is easy to see that candles cause more fires and injuries than fireworks and do not kill 8 people a year in Canada.

It might also be useful to find out how many injuries and fires the London fire department has attended. It is likely anywhere from none to a few. At the time of the 2004 bylaw that I dealt with there were no reported injuries and 1 small fire caused by a guy in a very small backyard shooting a firework that hit the old wooden soffits on his house. The house sustained no significant damage.
I hope this info from my experience helps.

If you have not done so yet you should contact the CNFA to see what they are doing about the London bylaw.
www.nationalfireworks.ca/


Canada-wide statistics for candle fires are
not available. However, based on data
from Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C.,
it is estimated that candles were
responsible for an average of nearly 800
candle fires in Canada each year between
1999 and 2008, with a yearly average of 8
fire deaths, 115 fire injuries and $26.2

million in property damage.


How many cases were there?

Between April 1, 2011 and April 13, 2023, there were 210 reported cases of injuries related to fireworks and other similar products, representing 11 cases per 100,000 CHIRPP records.

You can see the agenda for the meeting here pub-london.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=24ceb707-f2e2-4334-bcae-69dfaab2030f&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English

It is disheartening to see all the letters people have sent in wanting a ban on consumer and some people even are requesting an outright ban on everything.

I have also found a live stream link www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEAsjXw1zyo for when the meeting happens so I can watch it as I can't attend.

I also find it incredibly annoying how under announced this whole thing has been, no one knows about this, there have been nothing in the newspapers or on the radio so everyone is going to find out about it after the ban happens.

I think the real issue is that we need enforcement of the actual current bylaws since an outright ban is not going to stop people from setting off fireworks. Yeah it might reduce the overall amount but people are still going to light them off regardless.

-Darke(a sad and disheartened Londoner)

Good luck, I'll be watching the live stream and cheering you on

Good morning all.  After meeting update time.

The meeting was very well attended and the public input time went over 3 hours.  My input comes at 3:24 in on the Youtube feed.
The Hindu group forced overflow into 2 meeting rooms away from the chambers gallery.  At first I was miffed to be stuffed into the last room, but it became a benefit as I sat quietly at the back absorbing ideas as I listened and observed.  Many from the Hindu community spoke very well and they also had 2 psychologists to argue against the ill affects to people suffering mental illness.
The anti-fireworks group was generally rude and disrespectful to anyone opposed to them.  You are not allowed to clap, boo, cheer, etc.  They walked up beside people that were speaking and held up protest signs, shook their heads to deny facts, held their hands up to do silent clapping, nodded in agreement to non-factual statements as if it makes them more true, and worst of all, the guy sitting right in front of me made a quiet racial slur to one of his group.  It was very awkward feeling for me being one of the few white males in attendance.  The (lack of better descriptor) "brown" people (don't want to assume that they were all Hindi) thought I was against them and wouldn't really look at me, and then once the white crowd saw me actively approach a group of "brown" people during the break to let them know how much I appreciated their attendance, just looked at me with disgust.  After I had said my spiel, and they definitely knew who I was, a tall well dressed woman who gave a very impassioned presentation shuffled past me and others from K&H and Bob's mumbling "shame, shame, shame".  I stayed quiet and respectful all night, but that took me by surprise and I burst out laughing at her. I had to work very hard to quickly shut it down.  She had spoken so much about kindness and compassion.  Her true colours came out.
One councilor, I will name him, Sam Trosow, was there and running around making sure that he had anti fireworks people in every room.  During the break he was coaching speakers on changing their points to better attack the points of the Hindi group.  I am going to see if I can lodge a complaint about his activities last night.  It was for our input, not his.  They are now trying to push that dollar store sparklers are all that is required for Dwali.
In the end it was voted in favour of keeping "backyard" fireworks under option A, with a small Dwali edit, and sending that recommendation to council.  Of course the tall woman mumbled unbelievable over and over and mumbled about being ashamed of themselves.

Now we wait to see what full council decides.

I pointed out to Micheal Leff afterwards that they should ask that if the bylaw is to be changed to ban backyard fireworks that it not go into effect until after July 1, 2024.  They are talking about a timeline for the first quarter of 2024. When I asked him when he has to start placing his orders for annual inventory he quickly realized that they might get stuck with a bunch of inventory that they can't legally sell.
I will pose the same idea to my councilor.

Picked up some Wendy's and went to bed.

Thanks for your encouragement and support.

Forgot to mention...
THANKS BIGTOP!!!
The advice and stats that you gave were inspiring to me and helpful in making points. Shockingly, I was the only one to present stats of this type.

Thanks for the morning laugh Aussie.

My boss and co-workers were watching on line and they kept texting me asking what the signs said.  The one was just a red blob.  It was supposed to be her dog curled up and shaking.

I had to edit my pollution points out due to time.  I was going to end them with asking why "we don't just ban gas furnaces as well?  Oh. because we'd all freeze to death!"

Yes the hatred was strong in the rooms.  As I said to one of my co-workers yesterday, I felt very ashamed of being white the other night.  The racism was as strong as the lies, mistruths, exaggerating, and general ignorance.  To clarify... every anti fireworks person was white.  I also thought that that was weird.  Are we genetically more prone to trauma?

London City council voted 10-5 to draft an updated fireworks bylaw that will keep backyard fireworks for Victoria Day and Canada Day, as well as add Dwali (Nov. 12) and Chinese New Year.  The sale of fireworks will be cut back to 5 days prior to each event day from 7.
The addition of the 2 extra days is also then a very good thing for retailers like Bob's and Powerhouse (K&H).  They now have 20 sales days in London instead of 14.  The shortened sales periods may also shut down the smaller pop ups that can be the questionable sellers.

This is a huge win.

Thanks again all for your patience reading my updates and in offering up your advice.  Many snippets that I picked up here helped my write my arguments that I presented to the Community and Protective Services Committee.  Yep...  I'm claiming the win.