The hot, dry weather this year has Island County commissioners considering a complete ban on the sale and ignition of fireworks.

Commissioner Helen Price Johnson first raised the issue, noting that it seems absurd the county fire marshal could call a burn ban limiting all kinds of fires, but not fireworks.

During a Wednesday meeting she floated a change that would give the fire marshal the ability to do so under emergency conditions.

Price Johnson also suggested limiting personal use of fireworks to just the Fourth of July.

COMMISSIONER Richard Hannold said he would support a complete ban on fireworks county-wide.

“We should follow suit to our close neighbors who have banned them outright,” he said. “There’s always a burn ban every year.”

“To say you can’t have a campfire to cook your chicken, but you can set off explosives that burn a few thousand degrees is insane.”

Hannold, who lives on North Whidbey, said that, even though he is ex-Navy and enjoys “blowing things up,” he doesn’t light them off and he gets complaints from constituents who don’t like the effect on farm animals and pets.

“There’s an aging population that doesn’t like the noise, the trash and the clean up afterward,” he said.

HANNOLD’S view on the matter seemed to come as a surprise to Price Johnson, who said she would also support a complete ban on the personal use of fireworks.

“I would support that,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d get support for that.”

State law allows local city and county governments to completely ban fireworks within their jurisdictions or add a clause allowing an emergency ban — but only with a year advanced notice.

The year, advanced notice is a nod to community service groups that sell fireworks, said county prosecutor Greg Banks.

They have to order them well in advance and don’t want to get caught with thousands of dollars of inventory they can’t sell.

“THEREIN LIES the problem — the people who sell them,” Hannold said. “These people already have inventory so they are selling. Once they are sold, people are going to use them.”

He suggested community service groups find other ways to raise money, such as bake sales and car washes.

Any county ban would not affect public displays and would only encompass unincorporated areas. Cities have their own rules. In Coupeville, fireworks are limited to the Fourth of July. In Oak Harbor, revelers can light off legal fireworks for about a week around the Fourth.

OAK HARBOR Mayor Scott Dudley said he doesn’t expect a change like the one suggested by Hannold. Fireworks are part of the cultural fabric of Oak Harbor and an important fundraiser for local community service groups such as Rotary.

If the ban passes, he invited people living in unincorporated areas to visit the City of Oak Harbor to light off a few.

“We have a long history of celebrating the Fourth the way it should be celebrated,” Dudley said. “We are not concerned with overzealous or exaggerated concerns of those on the south end of Whidbey Island.”

COMMISSIONER Jill Johnson, whose area of representation includes the City of Oak Harbor, said she supports giving the Island County fire marshal the ability to ban fireworks on an emergency basis only.

Johnson said she does not support a complete ban on fireworks. She also doesn’t want to see them limited to a single day.

“I don’t believe this is a safety issue,” she said. “I believe it’s an inconvenient noise issue.”

She is sympathetic to the concerns of pet owners, but she also said sometimes it seems lawmakers can be too sensitive to what amounts to a few days of disruption.

Those who are upset tend to call and complain while those who enjoy fireworks have no reason to speak up, she said.

“What ends up happening is you make decisions based on what I believe is a small section of our county,” she said.

THE PUBLIC would have a chance to review and comment on a draft ordinance before it’s passed. The date for public hearing hasn’t been set yet.

Island County Sheriff Mark Brown, who serves as fire marshal, said it was unusual to issue a burn ban before the Fourth of July.

Typically, that doesn’t happen until mid-July.

This isn’t the driest June on record but it’s drier than normal. Total rainfall measured at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station during June was .38 inches.

The lowest amount of rainfall on record was .1 inches. The base couldn’t provide a year that occurred.

Normal precipitation during the month of June at the base is .81 inches.