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This is who to call to report illegal fireworks in your neighborhood

As concern over illegal fireworks grows, calls can clog 911 dispatch centers.

LONGMONT, Colo. — With dry conditions fueling fears that fireworks could start wildfires, authorities have spent the holiday weekend reminding people some types of Fourth of July fireworks are against the law. 

But now there's a new problem: people tying up 911 call lines to report their neighbors breaking the rules. 

"With the heightened fire danger in Boulder County, with neighbors that have sensitivities to loud noises and explosions and things like that, we’ve just seen a lot more community angst around those illegal fireworks in the neighborhoods," Longmont Assistant City Manager Sandra Seader said. 

RELATED: Where fireworks are and are not legal in Colorado

That community angst has tied up emergency dispatchers. In 2020, there were 810 calls to the Longmont 911 center complaining of illegal fireworks — amounting to one in every five callers for the two weeks around the Fourth of July. 

"It also deterred from what we'd call real calls," Seader said. "Priority one calls where there's either life, property, safety that's being threatened."

So now Longmont is joining Denver, Jefferson and Douglas counties with a new fireworks hotline — designed for residents to call and report illegal fireworks without tying up dispatchers. 

A team of volunteers in the Longmont Public Safety Building answers the line and enters the data on a map for police to see. "Hopefully if they start to see 'Oh there's a problem in this neighborhood or that neighborhood,' then they can go check it out and see what's happening," Seader said. 

Here are your Longmont Illegal Fireworks Call Center volunteers tonight 7/1/2022. Thank you! Please do not call 911....

Posted by Longmont Fire, Police and Community Health and Resilience on Friday, July 1, 2022

Seader said the goal isn't to rain on anyone's parade, but to encourage folks to celebrate safely and without tying up dispatchers' phone lines. She recommends going to a designated, city-sanctioned show where fire crews are standing by, rather than going it alone.

Local fireworks hotlines

  • Adams County – 303-288-1535
  • Boulder County – 303-441-4444
  • City and County of Broomfield – 303-438-6400
  • Denver -- 720-913-2000
  • Douglas County -- 303-660-7500 
  • Longmont -- 303-774-4731 or online.
  • City of Northglenn – 303-288-1535
  • Jefferson County -- 303-980-7340 or online.
  • Weld County – 970-350-9600

You can find other fireworks hotlines, or your local jurisdiction's non-emergency number on your city or county's website. 

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