Bans don’t stop big-bang search

WORLEY, Idaho – Fireworks may be illegal in most communities, but the bans don’t appear to be dampening sales on area Indian reservations.

Many of the fireworks purchased at stands on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation and the Spokane Indian Reservation find their way back to Spokane and Spokane Valley, where possession of the contraband can bring a fine.

Along the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene, Loon Lake in Stevens County, and other area lakes, legal and illegal fireworks light up the skies every Fourth of July.

Spokane police and fire officials will hold a press conference this week to again remind the public that it’s illegal to use fireworks in the city, where fireworks-related fires are down because of the ban. Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls also have restrictions on certain types of fireworks.

But like Prohibition in the 1930s, laws don’t always stamp out the desire to have something that’s illegal, and demand for fireworks in the non-Indian community is met by an ample supply in Indian Country.

Business was brisk Saturday – 11 days before the Fourth of July – at a string of fireworks stands on the Coeur d’Alene reservation.

Prices ranged from $2 for 100 “Black Cat” inch-long firecrackers to $795 for the “Pallet Load,” a 250-pound assortment that is sold with its own red handcart.

“I just think it’s ridiculous that they don’t let you buy or shoot them anymore in Spokane,” said a 28-year-old Spokane city employee who drove to the Coeur d’Alene reservation with his younger brother Saturday to buy a $30 bag of fireworks from the Two Vets stand.

They didn’t want to give their full names or say where they will make things go bang.

“When I was a kid growing up in Spokane, 15 or so years ago, you could get most of the fireworks like this almost on every street corner,” the young man said. “I don’t get it with all these laws they have now. It’s a lot of fun if you use common sense.”

“The cities get to do their fireworks shows, but we don’t get to do our own shows anymore,” he said, claiming the bans are an infringement on the very individual liberties that are celebrated on July 4.

The stand he visited, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 95 and State Highway 58, is one of three fireworks businesses within a couple blocks of the popular Coeur d’Alene Casino and Circling Raven Golf Course. There are probably a dozen or more other seasonal fireworks stands sprinkled across the 345,000-acre Coeur d’Alene reservation.

Denise Comer, wife of one of the co-owners of Two Vets, was spreading fresh white paint on the stand made out of 2-by-4s, plywood and galvanized metal.

The roadside stand gets a lot of repeat customers, she said, and many of them drive over from Spokane or down from Coeur d’Alene.

“They’re big kids just wanting to have some fun,” she said. “We like to blow things up, hear things go ‘bang,’ ” Comer said.

Louie Harris, 21, and Thomas Alfrey Jr., 22, both work at the fireworks stand and said the seasonal jobs provide income.

“We let our customers know it’s illegal some places, but it’s up to them where they fire them off,” Harris said. There are several sites on the Coeur d’Alene reservation designated for fireworks use.

At the Indian Country stand at Fighting Creek, about 15 miles south of Coeur d’Alene, Brad Ratcliff, 22, of Post Falls, laid out $200 for an armload for fireworks, including a “Genghis Khan” pack complete with mortar rounds that fly 200 or more feet into the air before exploding in colorful bursts.

“I’ve been coming down here every Fourth since I could drive,” said Ratcliff. “I save up for this every year.”

He didn’t want to go into details about where he’ll fire off his purchases.

“I get together with a big group of people for a big party on July 4,” he said. “Half the stuff I don’t even light myself. I give it away to my friends.”

“It’s one thing to go watch a fireworks show, and it’s another to do it yourself,” Ratcliff said with a smile. “It’s great.”

At the Fighting Creek stand, head sales clerk CeCe Curtis, a junior at the University of Idaho, said the seasonal job helps her pay bills and is a good revenue source for her Coeur d’Alene Tribe.

As soon as her stand opened on June 17, customers – many of them from Spokane, other Eastern Washington communities and North Idaho – started flocking in.

“It’s like a candy store to them,” she said of the 50-foot wall lined with various fireworks packages with names like The Quick & the Dead, King’s Ransom, House of Blues and Unleash the Beast. Or there’s the Night of the Grizzly for $300.

At another stand just down the road, clerk Cheffrey Sailto said some customers who bought fireworks last year were pulled over and stopped by Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies and Idaho State Police troopers.

Tribal officials and business owners viewed those stops as harassment and forwarded that message through tribal government leaders to law enforcement officials, Sailto said.

“At least 99 percent of our customers are non-Indians,” he said. “We get people from Washington all the time, Idaho, too,” Sailto said. “What they do with the fireworks they buy from us is their business.”

But why risk a $500 to $1,000 fine? “They love to break the law, to try and get away with firing them off,” he said.

As he spoke, a couple from Coos Bay, Ore., driving a 2007 red Dodge pickup, pulled into the stand and bought a $60 bag of fireworks, including aerial mortars, to take home where they are illegal.

“I think the government has gone way overboard with these bans,” the 52-year-old man said, declining to give his name.

He said he’ll fire off a few of the rockets on the Oregon Coast on July 4 and save a few for New Year’s Eve.

In between, the man, who’s a muzzleloader, said he fires off his black-powder cannon, which is legal. It shoots a golf ball “farther than you can see.”

“It’ll make more noise than anything I can buy here,” he said, then pointed to a vehicle 100 yards away. “It’ll set off a car alarm clear up where that truck is parked.”