Fireworks are back on Inglewood’s ballot just 1 year after the city initially banned them

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Hardly a year after the city of Inglewood’s firework sales ban went into effect, city residents could vote to overturn it.

The initiative that will be in the June 2 special election looks to make firework use and sales legal again in the city.  Mail-in voting has already begun. 

The new ballot initiative comes after the Inglewood City Council voted to ban fireworks outside of permitted shows in February 2025, delighting residents who worried about noise and safety, but frustrating some local nonprofits who rely on annual firework sales as a fundraiser. 

“They had just as much fireworks as they always had,” said D’Joy Robinson, whose family counseling nonprofit, All Families Matter, sold fireworks for several years before the ban.

Inglewood resident Mari Morales Rodriguez said she doesn’t mind small fireworks, but that she’s watched local fireworks get larger and more dangerous over the years. She wants to see the fireworks ban continue.

“They are out of control,” she said. “Nobody can control it.”

Fireworks manufacturers TNT Fireworks and Phantom Fireworks are the ballot initiative’s biggest backers — drafting the initiative and, according to state documents, funding  a campaign in support.

Inglewood Mayor James Butts said the city’s ban last year came after years of public feedback.

“We have received complaints for at least 12 years,” Butts said. “The council took action to outlaw them.”

Roughly two dozen cities in L.A. County permitted the sale and use of designated “safe and sane” fireworks last Fourth of July, according to the L.A. County Fire Department. Firework sales are only permitted June 27 through July 6 in California.

Here’s what would change under the proposed fireworks ordinance

Dennis Revell, a consultant for TNT Fireworks who drafted the initiative, said the new proposed ordinance would not be a return to the fireworks regulations Inglewood had in place before 2025.

“We felt that there were many deficiencies in the prior ordinance,” Revell said. “[This] is much more dynamic and should provide a level of confidence in public safety.”

The new rules would make it easier for the city to issue citations, Revell said, and expand who could be found responsible for violations. It would also put in place a mechanism for the city to recoup some of the costs of enforcement. 

Revell, who said he has drafted hundreds of local fireworks ordinances, said the proposed Inglewood rules are inspired by others put in place across California. 

“The trend is to take this seriously and protect the city but still allow for responsible people to celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks,” Revell said. 

The LA Local reached out to Phantom Fireworks but did not receive a response.

Making fireworks legal again would allow nonprofits like All Families Matter to resume their annual firework sales. Robinson, the administrator of the nonprofit, said without the extra $5,000 boost the fireworks stand could provide each year,  the nonprofit has had to trim the free family counseling services it provides.

Robinson also said the stand helped the nonprofit stay in touch with the neighborhood.

“We had families that came back year after year,” she said. 

Revell argued that legalizing “safe and sane” fireworks would also help keep more dangerous, illegal fireworks off the street. 

Morales Rodriguez, the Inglewood local, said legalizing some fireworks would make it difficult to report and control illegal variants because firework users could simply claim they’d bought their own fireworks at a permitted stand. 

“It looks like a war zone,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like something happy.”