FORKS — The Forks Old-Fashioned Fourth of July fireworks show has been canceled and the only vendor of fireworks in Forks is not selling them this year because of record dry conditions.
The public fireworks display will be rescheduled, said Mark Soderlind, chairman of the Forks Old-Fashioned 4th of July Committee.
“Nobody should be shooting off fireworks,” Soderlind said.
“I’ve been doing this for 15 years and this is the best decision I have ever made. It’s popping out there.”
The West End Youth League initially planned to delay opening sales from the legal first day of fireworks sales on Sunday to Wednesday to reduce the number of days when a fire might be started.
When it became clear the professional show on Saturday night would be cancelled because conditions were so dry, youth league members decided to cancel consumer fireworks sales entirely, said Scott Baysinger, president of the group.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Baysinger said Wednesday.
The closest place from Forks to buy fireworks now is in LaPush, since the youth league was the only vendor selling consumer fireworks in Forks.
Both organizations cancelled their fireworks-related activities out of concern about fire danger, said Rod Fleck, Forks city planner and city attorney.
“We applaud their decisions,” Fleck said.
Community leaders did not make the decision lightly, he said.
Fleck said the Tillicum Park ballfield, over which the fireworks explode, is very dry, and that a 4-acre forested area immediately adjacent to the area and downwind of the show area hasn’t received notable rain since April, Fleck said.
“The [Forks} fire chief [Bill Paul] was not convinced there would be no problems if embers got into the forested area,” Fleck said.
Records kept since the 1895 show that May and June this year were the driest ever recorded on the West End.
Burn bans are in effect in Clallam and Jefferson counties, in all North Olympic Peninsula cities, and on land managed by the state Department of Natural Resources, Olympic National Forest, and the Olympic National Park.
The National Park and National Forest allow campfires only in designated fire rings in developed campgrounds.
The DNR, county and city bans include a ban on all recreational fires — even those using charcoal briquettes, pellet-fed smokers, or in approved fire rings.
“No fires are allowed whatsoever,” said Justin Zarzeczny, recreation manager of the DNR Straits District.
County and city bans allow the use of gas or propane grills.
A community vote by ballot boxes in local businesses will be organized to decide how to use the $70,000 fireworks budget for another holiday once the rain returns and the fire danger passes, Soderlind said.
The stand was emptied of fireworks to send back to the supplier on Tuesday night.
While volunteers were working, an anonymous donor gave $150 to the league to help replace some of the funding they will lose.
The fireworks stand usually earns from $3,000 to $5,000 each year to help fund the youth league’s activities, Soderlind said.
The stand will remain open to sell Demolition Derby tickets, along with raffle tickets for a load of firewood donated by the Olympic Corrections Center.
Three other public fireworks shows are still scheduled to go on as planned Saturday on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Shows in Neah Bay, Port Angeles and Port Townsend each will launch their fireworks from a beach adjacent to the water, and they explode over open water, according to organizers of those events.
Fire trucks and people with fire extinguishers will be stationed near beaches where professional crews light off the fireworks in each location.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.