Travis County Commissioners Court

July 3, 2012 - Item 3
Agenda

Item number 3, receive briefing from fire marshal's office regarding fireworks, fires and the weather forecast tore the July 4th holiday and take appropriate action.

>> There are three members of the fireworks industry that are here today to express concern or address the court and if they want to come up, feel free to do so.
Again, the drought index yesterday was about 551.
It's been going up about 10 points a day.
The forecast for tomorrow is the winds in the morning will be very light, 4 miles an hour.
But by 10:00 p.m.
Tomorrow night, we expect 12, 13-mile-an-hour winds.
The relative humidity is up about 48 to 70% is the range for tomorrow and that relative humidity is very important as far as embers starting small fires.
When it's down around 25% and less, fire starts very easily.
So I ask the gentlemen from fireworks industry to introduce themselves and tell the court what they have to say.

>> Good morning, jeff coffey with american fireworks.
And we met yesterday afternoon with the fire marshal and the judge, and after discussion we've agreed to voluntarily pull some items from the stand because of the concerns about the dryness and the weather.
And those items that we've agreed to pull are the winged items, small bees, space ships, artificial satellites, bombers.
The items with the wings and those are the ones that the fire marshal I believe had the most concern about.
And we've agreed to do that and we have in fact pulled those from all the american stands as well as those for the industry and we're still working on getting the last of the ones out.
But those will be coming out of the stands.

>> We really appreciate y'all's voluntary cooperation on this.

>> Thank you.

>> You are very welcome.
We think it's important to work with the county and we want everybody to have a safe fourth of July.
And the one thing that I would like to stress is the importance to use fireworks safely.
There's a lot of time, energy and effort designed -- used to design these items, and if you follow their instructions you should be safe and we encourage you to follow instructions and use them carefully and the basically rule is to use common sense.

>> What would you all suggest, and I put this to the fire marshal as well, for individuals who do want to use fireworks for their celebrating, what should they have on hand in case something does get out of hand?
Fire extinguishers, water, sand?

>> Water is generally the easiest thing for anyone to have on hand especially if you are near your home.
There should always be some means to extinguish a small home should one occur around where you are shooting fireworks.
If you choose the area wisely where you are going to discharge consumer fireworks, there shouldn't be very much combustible material in the immediate area, 12 to 15 feet where you are shooting the fireworks.
A flat, level area.
Even if you don't have a fire, invariably there will be some dud.
Don't try to pick it up and reignite it.
Get it into that bucket of water and just leave it there.

>> We spend time with all of our customers.
I've got two columns of safety tips and shooters tips.
Even discussion about the idea what to do with the drought.
It's probably more important to me than it is to y'all even that these people try to use them safely and we spend a lot of time talking to folks.
Fortunately most of the folks that come to my stand are neighbors and we all know each other.
And so the safety is probably the most important thing to me because that's the problem.
If -- there are a few people, and I think fireworks cause one-half to one percent of the fires in the state of Texas.
It's just a few people being careless.
As with anything else.
And the best that we've got is to make sure that we do the best we can and to train and educate the people about the safety.

>> Thank you for doing that.

>> Your name, please.

>> I'm sorry, shawn mcmann.
Sorry, judge.

>> Zach stearns.
I've been in the fireworks business for 43 years.
All of it has been in travis and in surrounding counties.
To my knowledge, there's never, never been a major fireworks fire.
And we don't want one as an industry.
That's why we voluntarily come and ask to give these items up.
I mean voluntarily pull them from our shelves.
And I have spoke with everybody in the industry in Travis County and they have agreed.
They came off of my stand shelves before 5:00 yesterday.
And I just -- kind of a side note, but in our nation's history, prohibition has never worked.
Prohibition of any kind has never worked.
But regulation, you know, and education and especially regulation that, you know, gives the people some freedom and to use their common sense and all has worked in our nation's past.
But prohibition has been tough.
Thank you very much.

>> Thank you.

>> The three of you represent three of the industry vendors?

>> Yes, sir.

>> But there are two or three others, right?

>> Yes, sir.
We had a conference call day before yesterday where all of them were on that call and we heard it from every one of their mouths what they were willing to do and would do.
And -- and it was definitely the stuff that we agreed to yesterday.
We had previously come to herschel and agreed to take the rockets and the missiles off, and that was done I think last Friday.
And then yesterday we went further and went into the winged item category of sales and removed those and everybody agreed to that also.

>> Commissioner Huber?

>> Several comments.
Excuse me.
First of all, I really want to thank the industry for working with us because we all have a responsibility to work together to make sure we stay safe and I can't tell you how much I appreciate that.
Secondly, I just wanted to -- for purposes of education to whomever may be watching out there, herschel, are fireworks allowed in our county parks?
Can you elaborate on that is this.

>> Fireworks are not allowed to be discharged inside the county parks or a park that Travis County manages.

>> Okay, and then secondly, I know in my precinct, in one of our parks we did have reported fire last week that was caused by fireworks.
It was about a two-acre fire.

>> That's correct.

>> So we don't know much about it, but we do know that it was observed that it was caused by fireworks.
So I just want to say caution is important.
I mean, those were illegally done in the park by someone visiting the park and it is volatile out there.
Understandably the people who were the closest to the wildfires are really on edge and I've had lots of calls to my office requesting that the county ban fireworks.
And herschel, just for those purposes, could you elaborate on what the county can and cannot doing for fireworks.
This is why we have such a good working relationship with the fireworks industry.

>> My phone has been ringing as well, Commissioner, and people are -- especially on the western side of the county are very concerned about the dryness and the possibility of a fire starting.
So they are calling wanting to know why the fire marshal is not prohibiting fireworks.
And I do my best to explain to them that what the state's rules are about what a county can and cannot do related to fireworks.
In order to restrict just the rockets with sticks and missiles with fins, the county has to take that action prior to June 15th and the drought index at that time has to be over 575.
We met with you here in open court June 12th, which was the last session that would have been available to you.
The drought index was not 400 at that time so that option was not available to you.
In order to restrict fireworks beyond that June 15th possible restriction it takes a declaration of a local disaster in order to restrict or prohibit fireworks in a county.
And that, I believe from -- I think this from the county attorney's office, the judge has to believe there is an imminent danger of disaster occurring at that time.
So the -- and those restrictions are set by state law.

>> Thank you.
And thank you again for working with us.

>> Chief abbott is here as a representative of capital area fire association and wanted to talk to you just a second.

>> Good morning, judge and Commissioners.
I just wanted to keep you abreast of what we're doing operationally speaking for the next week as we go into July 4th.
Over the weekend we've staffed -- when I say "we," as capital area fire chiefs association, we've been having meetings where we have once a week to monitor conditions and to also stay afloat of all the other fire departments are doing so we can use resources better.
We have additional engines and brush trucks over the weekend and starting today going into July 4th we'll have additional units staffing engines and brush trucks across the county in various levels.
We also recommend as the fire marshal that even adults have adult supervision and play it safe this year and we definitely appreciate from an operational standpoint and the firefighters appreciate all the work that the fireworks industry is doing to keep us safer.
So collectively, I think we can have an enjoyable and safe fourth of July.
Thank you.

>> I almost forgot, I saw some emails going back and forth this morning.
It's my understanding that if you are -- if there's going to be a public fireworks display that they need a permit from the fire marshal's office.

>> That's correct.
There's been some discussion about what's a public display and state rules and regulations say that could be for public or private entertainment.
So if you are having a public display, licensed pryotechnic, we will contact the local fire chief so they can look at the scenario and sometimes they further restrict it by requiring fire apparatus to stand by.
To further elaborate on the fire that happened in western Travis County from the fireworks, as is quite often the case, it's misuse or illegal use of fireworks.
Individuals were observed shooting roman candles from a vehicle going down the road that started those fires.
It is illegal to shoot fireworks from a vehicle or at a vehicle.
So -- and it's generally those things where, hey, I bet you've never seen anything like this that something happens that's bad.
So remember what the rules are and obey those rules or follow the manufacturer's instructions and you can have a safe 4th.
But you need to be very careful this year.

>> So our word to residents is really if you use fireworks, use them safely.
If you use any kind of fire to celebrate the holiday, do so safely.

>> That's correct.
There are a number of public displays that will be occurring.
I'm sure information about those is available on the web, but I know Cedar Park has one in place, Pflugerville has one, volume volente and auditorium shores will be occurring so there are a number of public displays people can attend as opposed to consumer fireworks if they choose to do that.

>> Any other questions or comments?
We appreciate your cooperation.

>> Thank you for your time.

>> Travis, are you the only one on item 6?

>> I'm here for item 5.

>> 5 b we put on consent and 5 a was postponed.
We expect others here on 6.

>> I know leslie is in.

>> Meeting and I notified leroy I was on my way over.

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July 3, 2012: Travis County Launches New Video Playback System

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On July 3rd, 2012, Travis County began leveraging free resources by posting Commissioners Court meetings on Youtube. Previously every video clip was edited separately and hosted on the county's video server. The old system also required RealPlayer to view the video clips.

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