Illegal fireworks are causing hundreds of fires every year in the city of Los Angeles. Joel Grover reports for the NBC4 News at 6 p.m. on June 25, 2024.
Nearly every weekend lately, groups of young people shoot off dozens of illegal fireworks on a quiet street next to Los Angeles' Harbor Gateway neighborhood, and one of the mortars landed on the roof of a house on the corner of Denver Avenue and 158th Street.
"One resident lost a bedroom because of the illegal fireworks," said Dave Matthews, head of the Harbor Gateway Chamber of Commerce. "It's a problem in this area that we know will get even worse."
Residents of the Brentwood section of LA tell the I-Team a group of teenagers has been setting off illegal fireworks every week at the dog park at Veterans' Barrington Park.
"It's been going on for almost a year," said one Brentwood resident who asked us not to use her name. "We've complained to the police, the councilman. Nobody has done anything."
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Across the LA area, NBC4 viewers tell the I-Team they're hearing more and more illegal fireworks outside their houses in the months leading up to Independence Day, so we obtained and crunched data from the Los Angeles Fire Department for the two months leading up to the July 4 during the last three years.
The I-Team found there have been about 100 fires caused by illegal fireworks in LA, just in June and July in the years 2021, 2022 and 2023.
"We could have a massive explosion here because of the illegal fireworks shot off every weekend," Matthews said.
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That keeps neighbors in the Harbor Gateway worried, and the businesses on the street where the crimes take place.
"We have mortar shells that come onto our property," said Jacob, a sales manager at Grow More fertilizer company, just a few feet from where the fireworks are shot off.
"We have a lot of chemicals here that could go up in flames. Ethanol, acetic acid, potassium nitrate. These things have high flammability rates," Jacob told the I-Team.
"If that fertilizer factory goes up, it's going to take out everything else in this area," Matthews told the I-Team.
Businesses and residents have been urged by community advocates to call the sheriff's department when they see or hear the illegal fireworks.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department told the I-Team, "Since June 1 Deputy Personnel have conducted [at least] 7 patrol checks in the area… No arrests or citations have been noted."
The department said on at least two recent occasions "the Disturbing Parties were gone prior to their [the department's] arrival."
Some businesses threatened by the illegal fireworks think the state needs tougher penalties to discourage people from shooting off illegal fireworks.
"Because of this being just a misdemeanor only and a fine, the incentive for criminals isn't really there to not do it," said Jacob at Grow More.
The I-Team reached out to Councilman Tim McOsker and LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, since the Harbor Gateway area falls into their jurisdictions, to see what they plan to do about the illegal fireworks.
McOsker's office said in a statement, "LAPD asks that the public report problem locations to the non-emergency AskLAPD hotline" and it said there will be increased deployment to respond to fireworks calls, especially during the days leading to and right after July 4th."
Mitchell said in a statement, "My office will continue to work closely with our local Sheriff's stations to address this issue in areas where it is a more prevalent problem, like East Gardena… I am encouraging our East Gardena residents to report the use of fireworks directly to our Compton Station Dispatch."
