Firework Laws Lifted For Holiday

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(UNDATED) - Several cities and counties have used a new state law to limit when you can set off fireworks. But that law shouldn’t stop anyone from lighting up the sky on the Fourth of July.

The law allows local ordinances limiting or banning fireworks most of the year, but not this week.

Starting at ten a-m on Independence Day, no limits are allowed the rest of the day. For five days on either side of the holiday, there's about a seven-hour window from five p-m till two hours after sunset where no restrictions are allowed.

Counties can still clamp down if they conclude dry conditions raise a risk of grass fires.

Indiana Homeland Security Director Eric Dietz says Crawford County inquired about that provision, but apparently decided against a ban. He says people shooting off fireworks should still use caution.

Rain in Harrison and Spencer counties has allowed them to lift bans on open burning imposed two weeks ago.

Last year's legislature scrapped Indiana's longstanding wink-and-a-nod law in which residents promised to take their fireworks out of state to ignite them.

This year, lawmakers agreed to allow some local restrictions, after complaints about firecrackers going off at all hours.

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