David Schmalz here, alive and well after another July Fourth in Seaside, where the weather was extraordinary and the fireworks fewer than in any year I’ve seen, having come to the area a dozen years ago.
Like every year, I was curious how many illegal fireworks would light up skies, especially given that Seaside Police has been aggressively citing people and property owners in the last two years, bolstered by evidence gathered from the drones—two owned by the department, two from Cal Fire—which zipped around the city all night surveilling the scene.
In all, Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges says officers issued 62 citations for illegal fireworks, each carrying a $1,000 fine, and made two fireworks-related arrests. He adds that officers also ticketed several cars parked on Gen. Jim Moore Boulevard (which is prohibited on July 4).
“Everyone I‘ve talked to has said, ‘What a difference,’” Borges says. “It’s not perfect, but we’re on the right track and we’re doing all the proactive things.”
Borges attributes the success to a combination of several things. Seaside's fire department helped in patrolling the city, Cal Fire provided two drones and operators, and heightened awareness due to continued public outreach about the 10pm curfew on legal fireworks in the city.
Perhaps most importantly though, he says, is the city’s enforcement of citations. In years past—Borges gives 2019 as an example—officers would cite people, they’d contest the fine and the city wouldn’t make them pay. Word got around. “People thought it was a joke,” he says.
That changed, he says, when Sheri Damon came on as city attorney in 2020. “That has been our biggest tool,” Borges says. “She has been the first person to actually hold people accountable.”
He estimates the city collected a total of $50,000 in fines given out in 2023 and 2024, a number likely to be eclipsed this year alone based on citations already given. And now that the drones are more plentiful, that helps too—in some areas, illegal fireworks go off on a street with multiple parties, and a drone can camp out in the sky and wait until someone leaves a party to light the next one, thereby outing the offending property.
The batteries last about 30 minutes, and with four drones, another fully charged drone can move in to relieve another, so there can be uninterrupted coverage of a single area. And if officers have trouble identifying a suspect, they cite the property owner—Borges says people have been evicted in recent years due to fireworks citations.
So all things considered, Seaside’s July Fourth—how the city managed it—was a success, but Borges say he was particularly miffed by the mess left at the Home Depot parking lot, where he says a number of out-of-towners left a bunch of fireworks trash in the parking lot, setting off their legal fireworks and then leaving the debris.
I wasn’t able to get any numbers yet today for Salinas, except for the fireworks-related reports made by residents on the city’s SalinasCONNECT mobile app: 130 total from July 3-6, with 94 of those reports coming July 4.
If you live in Salinas, please let me know how it went for you. Like Seaside, the city has for years faced challenges keeping up with enforcement of illegal fireworks.
If you have any wild stories from your July Fourth in the 831, as always, hit me up, I’d love to hear ‘em.
In any case, stay safe out there.