TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 With the Fourth of July days away, dry weather and burn bans in parts of Florida have some Tampa locals worried about fires.<\/p>\n
Julie Gentry, a Tampa resident, said the heat has taken a toll on the grass and plants in her backyard, but the real concern is a potential fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to lose my home because somebody else wants to set off fireworks in their driveway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Florida currently has seven burn bans, including in Sarasota and Manatee counties.<\/p>\n
Galaxy Fireworks said it is paying close attention to the conditions. Showroom Manager Andrew Domonko said sales typically increase at the company\u2019s dozens of tents and four showrooms just before the holiday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a little bit slow with the burn bans lately. It\u2019s starting to pick up,\u201d Domonko said.<\/p>\n
Domonko said Galaxy Fireworks is trying to make sure customers use its products safely.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to follow all the modern safety standards, making sure our operators know all the conditions in their county,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rob Herrin with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue said people who choose to use fireworks can take steps to reduce risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave some water standing by. Garden hose, at least a bucket, you know,\u201d Herrin said. \u201cUse the fireworks as intended. Point them straight up. Don\u2019t pair them up one at a time. Don\u2019t point them at anybody. Try to keep them away from structures and vehicles. If you can get them out a little further away, that\u2019d be good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gentry said she would like to see a ban on personal fireworks during the current weather conditions. Even without one, she said she hopes people will consider other ways to celebrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive it a break at home. Go watch the professional shows, and we\u2019ll all be safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 With the Fourth of July days away, dry weather and burn bans in parts of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[76223,276,4628,115,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-322867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-matt-lackritz","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}