Statehouse News Bureau

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The Legal Lowdown On Fireworks In Ohio

By Jo Ingles and Andy Chow

Published July 2, 2019 at 7:54 PM EDT

Ohio’s laws on fireworks can be confusing.

You can legally buy products in Ohio that you cannot legally use here.

Lawmakers have debated bills to change that but, so far, they haven’t made it through the full legislative process. Here's the lowdown on what’s legal and what’s not.

You can buy the "big boom" fireworks in Ohio, but you cannot detonate them here. They have to leave the state within 48 hours after they are purchased, though you no longer have to fill out a form promising to take them out of Ohio.

“The only items that can legally be purchased by the public and used in Ohio are what is called the trick and novelty fireworks -- anything that smokes, snaps, snakes or sparkles," said Brian Bohnert with the Ohio Fire Marshall’s office.

Bohnert says if you want to see the big booms, attend a public fireworks display.

In addtion to it being illegal to set off fireworks in Ohio, it's also dangerous, said Sherry Williams, with Prevent Blindness.

More than 9,000 people went to the hospital in 2018 with fireworks-related injuries like burns and amputations, according to one report.

Williams urges people to leave a party if fireworks are about to be set off.

“The folks setting off the fireworks, they have the right to take the risk that they want to," Williams says, "but they're putting innocent bystanders in the line of an injury, a death perhaps."

Groups advocating for fireworks safety this holiday included dog shelters, pediatricians, and the state fire marshal’s office.