Fireworks spark blaze at Dale City home

Fireworks caused the fire at a Dale City home Saturday night.

The small rocket was shot into the air and landed on a vinyl deck shade and caused it to melt. As it did, the vinyl dripped onto the deck, setting it on fire.

The final damage estimate to the home in the 5500 block of Neddleton Drive was $10,000, according to Prince William County Fire and Rescue Chief Joe Robertson.

Another fire that night, this time in the 6600 block of Oakland Drive in Dale City, about a mile from the where the deck caught fire, ignited the garage.

Robertson said the homeowner placed used fireworks into a plastic bag and then put them in the garage. About an hour later the used fireworks ignited, and he and his wife smelled something burning.

When they looked into their garage, the entire trash can the fireworks were in was on fire, said Robertson. The man used a garden hose to douse the fire, but the fire did cause $1,000 of damage to the home.

Fire officials along with police officers fanned out across the county Saturday as part of their annual Fourth of July illegal fireworks enforcement.

When neighbors called to report illegal fireworks on the holiday, they were the ones who responded and investigated the calls.

Prince William Fire and Rescue Chief Hadden Culp said the fireworks fires could have been prevented, and were dangerous because lives could have been lost.

“I am a firm believer that our citizens should have a safe fourth [of July] so that they will have a happy fifth [of July]. With that in mind, I reflected on the house fire that occurred on Neddleton Drive. In this case, one person’s discharge of illegal fireworks resulted in a life-threatening situation that destroyed one of our citizen’s property,” stated Culp in an e-mail.

Culp continued that when people are arrested for illegal fireworks, it is because efforts to educate them about what fireworks are considered legal has failed.

No one was seriously injured in Prince William County on the Fourth of July, but enforcement crews were called 103 times for reports of illegal fireworks and one person was arrested, said Robertson.

The list of permissible fireworks in the county could be considered small when compared some other localities. It includes sparklers, fountains, Pharaoh’s serpents, caps for pistols and pinwheels — commonly known as whirligigs — and spinning jennies.

Not even firecrackers are on the permissible list.

But Robertson and other county fire officials said that a short list is a good thing, pointing to data from the Virginia Fire Incident Reporting System that states no one in the state, in the past four years, has died because of a firework related injury.

State lawmakers decide which fireworks are allowed in Virginia, and then localities have the option of further banning certain fireworks.

Robertson said 10 notices were handed out to people with illegal fireworks Saturday night.

All of the illegal fireworks were confiscated, and were stored in a van “for disposal by qualified law enforcement officials.”

Culp said that for next year, he will review the county’s firework education and public information efforts about illegal fireworks, and reminds residents that discharging an illegal firework in the county can be punishable up to a $2,500 fine.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.