Senator Greg Ball's Firework Safety Bill Signed Into Law

Albany, N.Y. – 7/18/2013 – Senator Greg Ball (R, C, I – Patterson) Chairman of the Senate Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee is happy to announce that his legislation (S4280), to enhance firework safety on state property, has been signed into law by Governor Cuomo.

Previously, the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation issued permits for pyrotechnics and firework displays on state park property. However, in all other cases, the permitting authority was local government, even if the firework display is to take place on state property.

Senator Ball’s new law will amend the Executive Law and the Penal Law to designate the Office of Fire Prevention and Control (OFPC) as the permitting authority for the display of fireworks and use of pyrotechnics on all state property.

“This law will uniform the approval process and put one single agency in charge of firework approvals. The Office of Fire Prevention and Control has the necessary resources to issue permits for firework displays to ensure that they are safely conducted,” said Senator Greg Ball. “In addition to safety, establishing a single state agency with the expertise and responsibility to make these permitting decisions is not only more efficient, but will bring consistency to how these displays are conducted on state property.”

In 2012, OFPC became aware of fireworks and /or pyrotechnic displays on state property where the custodial state agency could not obtain a permit in compliance with the requirements of the Penal Law. OFPC assisted a number of these agencies to assure that safe and legal displays of fireworks and/or pyrotechnics took place. For example, the State University of New York was unable to obtain a permit for a fireworks display on one of its campuses, because the town did not have an established local permitting process.

OFPC would perform these permitting functions within existing resources. Moreover, this law will have a positive impact on local governments by alleviating their responsibility to issue permits for the use of fireworks and pyrotechnics on state property.