SCARBOROUGH, Maine — In the runup to the first Fourth of July in decades in which consumer fireworks are widely legal in Maine, Gov. Paul LePage and State Fire Marshal Joe Thomas used the recent opening of a new fireworks store in Scarborough to stress the importance of fireworks safety.
“This is the first time Maine has had fireworks for a long, long time and I believe what we want to do is make sure people are encouraged to use them safely,” said LePage on Monday.
Fireworks became legal in Maine on Jan. 1 after being illegal in the state since 1949. The law making fireworks legal, however, allowed individual municipalities to enact their own bans on fireworks, which 36 towns and cities have done, including Portland.
In addition to encouraging safety, LePage brought up a familiar refrain about keeping Maine business-friendly during his comments about legalizing fireworks in the state.
“It’s all about the economy,” LePage said. “There’s a demand, and we want to make sure there’s an adequate supply, that it’s safe, [and] sold to people that are of age within the law. And it creates jobs.”
The Phantom Fireworks store in Scarborough employs about 50 workers, according to William Weimer, vice president of the Ohio-based company. Weimer said the store will employ about 40 people year-round and 50 during peak season, which he said runs from mid-April until the end of the summer.
Phantom Fireworks celebrated its grand opening in Scarborough on Wednesday. This brings to 10 the number of licensed fireworks stores in Maine. The first was Pyro City, which opened in Manchester just two months after the law went into effect.
The Scarborough store was packed Monday, with drivers vying for parking spaces and long lines at the cash registers. Customers could be seen leaving with carts piled high.
Fire Marshal Thomas joined the governor to discuss safety and fireworks regulations.
Thomas said the fire marshal’s office has been receiving a steady stream of calls from residents wondering about how fireworks regulations affect them and their towns.
“You gotta realize, these have been illegal since 1949, and with a new device in people’s hands, we want them to be prepared,” Thomas said. “We’re expecting a busy week [of] fielding questions about [fireworks] use.”
Weimer said Phantom Fireworks is very concerned about the safety of its products, attaching safety brochures to every receipt and printing shopping bags with safety tips.
The governor’s visit came just hours after children started a two-alarm fire in Portland when they accidentally caught a mattress on fire using sparklers they had lit with a toaster. The fire displaced residents of seven apartments in the 22-unit building on Montgomery Street.
Thomas stressed it is illegal for adults to furnish fireworks to minors.
“We’re really concerned about making sure these don’t end up in the hands of children,” he said.
lets get something straight:
Fire Marshal Thomas , your a fire marshal because
the former fire marshal is the only man in this state
brave enough to stand up against lepage and then
resigned because of what fireworks would do to this
state’s people
enjoy being a puppet for lepage and be sure you
ask permission from lepage to even fart.
Why don’t you take a deep breath, relax a little, and tell us what it is about the legal sale of fireworks in Maine that gets you so worked up.
Do you mean the former fire marshal that tried to incoprorate home sprinkler systems into the building code, adding another $10,000. onto the cost of building a new home? It was not a single issue that made him leave, it was over-regulation vs common sense.
LePage I’m sure you don’t hear fire crackers out side your window ever damn night!!!!! I agree with pitbull. and another thing. You got alot of tanaf and welfare people buying this crap you signed into law. Also, when someone gets hurt using them like blow off a hand, ect. it will be a person thats on Maine care… What were you thinking when you signed this bill into law? Re election??? Hello, you are NOT having my vote by any means…
the nightly fireworks crap just started in my
neighborhood, about 3 or 4 residences have started up
i got work at 4am tomorrow morning,my neighbors,
my significant other…and the crap is going off
next time i see any republican politician, i am calling
them a coward to their face, not to say anything
about this mess. even the republicans who voted
against legalizing fireworks you should be saying
something
I have lived in Maine all of my life and I cannot remember any year that I did not hear fireworks going off, especially around the 4th of July. Whether the sale of fireworks in Maine is legal or illegal, there will be fireworks in Maine.
Hey, the 4th Is ok….. But, every damn NIGHT for hours on end!! come on lets get real here!!!!! Come spend a week were we live and you’ll hate them too!!!!!
Seems to be a lot of demand for oxycontin, codone or whatever oxy is available. Are we going to be open for business with this as well? I can think of a lot of other things for which there is demand but availability on an open market for the product or service is tough to justify. A short-sighted rationale but unfortunately one we’ve come to expect.
Being a resident of Portland, I assure you the city and town bans on fireworks are useless. I have heard no less than a dozen blasts tonight – the same individuals I saw being warned last night on the Waterfront were shooting off fireworks no less than 5 minutes after the officer was kind enough to warn them without confiscating their fireworks.
As I sit here reading about this and the gentleman in Richmond with 17 stitches across his forehead, fireworks are going off in my neighborhood. It’s 9:30, not too late, but I know some people have to get up and go to work in the morning and parents have put their kids to bed. We really didn’t need this. It’s been quiet since 1949 and most of us preferred it that way.
You guys make it sound like maine is the only state that has fireworks in the U.S.A
Funny you should say that. down at the other end of my road, where the welfare live, they were letting off fire crackers last night until 11:00.
Are they selling m-80’s cause I sure would like to let some off when I get up at 4:30……
They are still up then, you have to wait until noon!
Right, good point thanks !
I find it hard to believe that no one in your world has ever set off fireworks until this year. Legal or illegal, Maine people have always had fireworks.
Paul sure is turning things around in this state, look he got some firework stores open…..LMAO.
i think he realizes he will not get re elected so
he is building a golden parachute for himself for
when he living in florida
You guys make it sound like maine is the only state that has fireworks in the U.S.A
I’ve not heard a single firework go off in the past two days. None, nada, zip. I have no clue where some of you folks live but in Bangor it is pretty quiet.
so tell me, why did a real estate owner DAMON “R” FROM
BANGOR want fireworks legalized. why did an out of
state fireworks real estate company spent $20000 to
have fireworks legalized in maine?
Because maybe he isn’t an extremist that he thinks Mainers can take care of themselves. Unlike Liberals who think that Augusta has to be everything to everyone. Did you ever think that Mainers we are going to use them anyways. If you read the articles Mainers in large numbers are buying them now at these stores before we went to New Hampshire to buy them. The Liberals have put so much fear into everyone its pitiful. They have got Mainers thinking that fireworks are bad. They used the same lies and scare tactics with Casinos. It failed. Now they are doing with Fireworks and it isn’t working either because as I stated large majority of Mainers are buying them including myself. If Liberals don’t like it they can always pack their bags and head down I-95 out of MAINE. Because fireworks are here to stay because as we seen with Casinos , this is a huge jobs and revenue producer as well.
someday soon,, you win be standing in 10 feet of
snow while lepage is sitting in a lawn chair
in 75 degree sunny florida weather
No someday soon Liberals will come to accept what working Mainers all of us who work and pay taxes what we want. If they don’t like it they can always pack their bags and head down I-95 to Massachusetts and have Mini-Nobama to deal with. Because Mainers have spoken loud and clear they don’t want Extreme Liberalism and the Welfare state anymore.
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No why don’t you leave take. Don’t like the posts because the truth hurts. Mainers are taking back our state from the Liberals who have ruined our state with their elitist , arrogant behavior. They come in and impose their radical left wing policies and behaviors on us while the rest of us are the ones who suffer. Just because you don’t like Mainers en masse buying fireworks that’s too bad. Get with reality Mainers like having this freedom. The have felt oppression and restrictions for 40 years under Liberal Dems. Just as with Casinos the fear hasn’t worked with Fireworks because more stores are coming in the future, I think you will see bottle rockets become legal too.
You call an estimated $400,000 in state taxes for fireworks a huge revenue producer??? Fireworks do not benefit anything. It was a waste of time for our legislators to work on this stupid bill.
Almost as stupid as Gov”lowage”Lepage’s using $400,000 in our tax dollars to fight health care reform in the SCOTUS(supreme court) and lost. All down the drain. Not one cent spent for Mainers.
No Liberals don’t like it because the Nanny State continues to get peeled away. Just because folks like yourself are miserable with the life and the way things are going that’s too bad. Look how us Mainers have felt for 40 years under Democrat’s sufficating behavior. I think you will find that their will be more than $400,000 in taxes coming in. You have one person (Pyrocity)with 5 stores already saying he can make easily $1 million + in sales at each store. Your starting to see national chains come in as well. Liberals think we all want to be bums collecting Welfare and having them hold our hands. No we don’t want want our rights, freedoms and personal responsibility back. Liberals love to whine when things aren’t their way because they know people like the way things are. If Casinos and Fireworks weren’t popular they would be out of business. Both of these are huge revenue generators and job producers if done right. If we can bring the manufacturing of these fireworks to Maine that would really create good paying jobs.
Fireworks and casinos have nothing in common.
What does that have to do with me not hearing a single firework go off in the past two days?
Maybe because all these people who work don’t live just in Bangor. In my neighborhood, so far it’s just the welfare letting off firecrackers late into the night. Last night it was at 11:00. Most people expect it on July 3rd and 4th, but we’ve listen to this late into the night for 2 weeks and everyday, all day.
Two folks on our road work a night shift which is why the welfare have been letting them off all day.
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No not all people who set them off are on well fare… Bout around where we live they are.. And have nothing else better to do with there time. Also, seems that these people get hot and bothered by shooting them off… If you want fire works and fire cracker action join the service.
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I’m not implying it’s just welfare, after all
come early tomorrow well before noon, the working
class on our road will be returning the entertainment.
At this moment and the last 2 weeks it’s been
just the welfare on our road. Those of is who
work don’t have the time and money to annoy,
keep awake, have fun whatever one wishes
to call it.
It’s about to change…….
—
I don’t hate them but there’s a time and place
for them
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We have a radio in the barn and turn it up
firecrackers and whatnot don’t seem to upset
the critters much with the radio on.
Doesn’t work if they are outside of course
Buy Headseats or earplugs if you don’t like the noise.
We know you dont like fireworks moved to nh oh wait they have them too.
Where have you been the last few nights? I’m practically downtown and I’ve heard them for the last few nights. There was a particularly loud flurry of explosions last night at about 8:45.
What jerks!
Who are we going to replace him with Liberal Mitchell, Emily Cain, that loser Eliot Cutler LOL please. You and the rest of the Liberals can cry till at least January 2015 hopefully till January 2019 because their is nothing Liberals can do about it.
what about the republicans who voted
against legalizing fireworks?
Really explain all of the Democrats voting for the law at one point or another including the leadership. Mainers spoke loud and clear in 2010. They finally got tired of the Maine Democrats Agenda. They are tired of the extreme policies coming from the Dems. That is why 81% of Mainers who voted. They voted for someone running as a conservative even the Liberal Independents ran as conservatives . Face it the majority of Mainers want to have change here in Maine we want our freedoms back. If fireworks wasn’t popular many towns/cities here in Maine instead of the 20+ (Liberal ones) that actually did would have banned them. So the Liberals have no case. Because majority of the cities and towns in Maine side with Republicans on this issue. They made not only fireworks legal but also want stores.
Where do you get your drugs?
Are you trying to look stupid?
Poor NANNYs…LOL…BANG!!! The sound of FREEDOM…
What does the fact children started a fire with sparklers have to do with this article? Sparklers have been available for years, so haven’t toasters! So now do we ban toasters in Maine, or just restrict their use to 21yoa or older?
LePage is a DUD…..!!!!!
Gambling, fireworks, and alcohol… can we please peddle goods to the lowest common denominator for the sake of “jobs”? I’m sure the resultant payoff from this sort of development will be wonderful! Gambling addiction, fires and injury, and chemical dependance is good for Maine….. right?
If ya gonna have a scortched earth policy for Maine –
fireworks is a Geat Start!
Lepage! —” Get Er Lit!
LePage is the worst thing that has ever happened to Maine. Just because “there is a demand” for fireworks doesn’t mean they should be legal or sold. The dangers they pose to people using them is not worth making them legal. Just like alcohol, underage kids will now more easily manage to acquire them. A lot of these “adults” who purchase them do not possess the common sense required to use them “safely”. Aside from injuries there is always the danger of fire caused by these legal fireworks. Last, but certainly NOT least is the noise! I have neighbors that have been lighting them off almost every night for weeks now. It is annoying and terrorizes pets. What a totally stupid idea legalizing them is.
MaineKat email your legislators and let them know. I certainly hope LePage is a 1 term governor. Maine people were not complaining about them being illegal so they should have left the law as is. This is only turning neighbors against neighbors!
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Thank You Paul…!
just received text of 2 more serious
fireworks injury in maine today
..stay tuned for link