[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Galax as Ch.
6, Art. II, of the 1974 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Fire protection and prevention — See Ch. 58.
The regulations contained in this chapter are hereby adopted to provide
for the issuance of permits to fair associations, amusement parks and organizations
and groups of individuals for the display of fireworks and to regulate the
use and display of fireworks upon the granting of permits.
Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, it shall be unlawful for
any person to transport, manufacture, store, sell, offer for sale, expose
for sale or to buy, use, ignite or explode any firecracker, torpedo, skyrocket
or other substance or thing, of whatever form or construction, containing
nitrates, chlorates, oxalates, sulphides of lead, barium, antimony, nitroglycerine,
phosphorus or any other explosive or flammable compound or substance and intended
or commonly known as "fireworks."
A.
Written application for a permit to display fireworks
shall be made in triplicate to the Chief of the Fire Department, stating the
time, place, type of fireworks and circumstances under which they are proposed
to be displayed.
B.
Each such application shall name at least one person
who shall participate in displaying the fireworks who has had experience in
displaying the type of fireworks proposed to be displayed.
Upon approval of an application for a permit to display fireworks, the
Chief of the Fire Department shall write across such application the word
"Approved," and the application shall be dated and signed by the Chief of
the Fire Department, which date shall constitute the beginning of a thirty-day
storage period permitted for such fireworks, and all fireworks covered by
such permit shall be displayed or discharged within such thirty-day period.
One copy of each application for a permit to display fireworks shall
be kept on file by the Chief of the Fire Department until after the date the
fireworks are displayed, and two copies, after being approved as aforesaid,
which will then become a permit to display fireworks, shall be returned to
the applicant, who shall keep one copy on file for 60 days after displaying
such fireworks, and one copy shall be in possession of the person in charge
of displaying the fireworks at the time and place they are being displayed.
Prior to the use of fireworks pursuant to a permit, they shall be stored
in a metal container in a building of masonry construction so that members
of the public cannot have access to them, and such fireworks shall not be
stored in the City for a period in excess of 30 consecutive days.
No spectator or member of the public other than those who are participating
in displaying or discharging the fireworks shall be closer than 50 feet to
the place where such fireworks are being displayed or discharged.
This chapter shall have no application to any officer or member of the
armed forces of this state or of the United States while acting within the
scope of his authority and duties as such nor to any offer of sale or sale
of fireworks to any authorized agent of such armed forces, nor shall it be
applicable to the sale of materials or equipment otherwise prohibited by this
chapter when such materials or equipment are used or to be used by any person
for signaling or other emergency use in the operation of any vehicle for the
transportation of persons or property.
