To the editor:

When my wife and I read in the online Bainbridge Review that personal fireworks were banned this year, we were very pleased.

Aside from the stated reason for the ban being the extreme fire hazard, the explosions on previous Fourth of July evenings and the days leading up to it cause panic in one of our two dogs. The male dog shakes and paces for hours keeping us up as he needs to be held almost the entire night.

At the end of the previous week I had gone to the police and asked what to do since fireworks were already being discharged in significant numbers. I was told to call 911 and report it, which I did several times, although it appeared to make no difference.

On the Fourth, I fully expected that vast number of people, including those who feel that celebrating our independence with fireworks made in China, would decide following the legal injunction was important.

I could not have been more incorrect. At about 8, we arrived home from a barbecue at a friend’s house where we had not heard any fireworks.

But when we arrived to our home, which is on a sunny hill with high fire hazard  potential, the fireworks were in full swing, and continued until well after midnight. There were thousands of explosions including some that were enormous. Since it was hot and windows were open, the smell of gunpowder filled the house, and it was so smoky outside I could not see whether or not a brush fire had been started.

Personally I would be for a permanent ban on fireworks in the years ahead, although just keeping the celebration to one night with strict enforcement of the ban non-Independence Day fireworks usage would be fine. But this is what was supposed to be happening now, and it seems an utter failure.

I fully understand that the police are overworked and cannot be everywhere at once, but it is hard to understand people’s inability to police themselves and both follow the law and use good judgment regarding using fireworks when the environment is so obviously dangerous.

My wife has declared this the last year she will celebrate the Fourth at home, which is sad to me. I enjoyed having a barbecue with friends up until 8 p.m. and then it was not only not fun, it was painful and frightening.

DAVID SUGARMAN

Bainbridge Island