Due to severe drought conditions, you might not be lightening fireworks in bell county this fourth of July.
One disaster declaration may take the fun away from setting them off.
The USDM has classified Bell County as 100 percent abnormally dry. With such dry weather, officials say setting off fireworks could cause a fire.
Bell County Judge Blackburn said, “As of yesterday, KBPDI mean value in bell county was 619.35, those numbers simply indicate its very very dry and the occurrence of wildfires are very likely.”
It's because of those conditions that the declaration has been put in place and it prohibits the sale and use of fireworks.
Judge Blackburn said, “There’s a penalty associated with this declaration as there has been with previous disaster declarations.”
That penalty is a punishable fine of up to one thousand dollars or jail time of up to 180 days.
Entities can put in applications to their respective city to get authorization to do fireworks but setting off fireworks on your own without permission is prohibited.
This disaster declaration, nevertheless, is subject to change if the weather changes.
