Across western Oakland County and beyond, new stores are opening, tents are appearing in parking lots and on corners and the fireworks business is booming.
“We get the moms that come in with their kids, teenagers who just turned 18 and adults with good jobs who buy a lot of stuff,” said Jeff Cunmulaj who opened Jeff’s Fireworks in Howell after the Michigan Fireworks Safety Act was signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in 2011 and this past March opened a second location in Highland Township.
While the store still sells low impact fireworks like fountains and sparklers, Cunmulaj says a full 90 percent of the products lining his shelves are those that fall under the new consumer law.
In other words, the formerly-prohibited type of fireworks capable of flying high in the air and exploding with a loud bang: bottle rockets, reloadable shell devices, missile-type rockets, roman candles, firecrackers, single tube devices with report and more.
He also carries smaller sizes of the cake-shaped fireworks that shoot effects, colors, and often loud reports, into the air.
Depending on a person’s enthusiasm and pocketbook, the repeater cakes come with anywhere from a few to several hundred shots.
For Eric Konopka, a financial adviser, a second career in fireworks sales grew out of a hobby he’s always enjoyed.
Konopka and his wife own Michigan Fireworks Company, with a brick and mortar store at 20734 Pontiac Trail in Lyon Township, with a second tent location in South Lyon as well as tents in Plymouth and Canton.
Konopka takes a lot of pride in the quality of the low impact fireworks he carries, but the business’ best sellers are the reaper shells he said are available only to dealers who meet a certain purchase criteria.
But while many people flock to stores and tents scooping up armloads of fireworks leading up to the Fourth of July holiday, the products they buy and bring home and shoot off in the yard are everything from a nuisance to a terrifying reminder of things they’d rather forget.
For many veterans – specifically those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder – fireworks can cause a panic.
Puente said he’s seen the problem in veterans of every generation.
Pets, especially dogs, also suffer during fireworks.
Dr. Cathy Weber, a veterinarian who owns and practices at the South Lyon Animal Clinic in downtown South Lyon, said her clients seek more tranquilizers for their canine companions during late June and early July than during all other months.
Weber said she hears about a wide spectrum of behaviors exhibited by dogs afraid of the loud noises.
After fielding complaints about excessive noise since Michigan’s new fireworks law went into effect in 2012, some local governments have passed ordinances to limit consumer fireworks as much as state law allows.
Milford, Highland, White Lake, Commerce and Lyon townships, as well as South Lyon and Milford Village limit the days fireworks can be shot to 30 specific days a year: 10 national holidays and the day before and the day after those holidays. The holidays include the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day, among others. On those days, the use of consumer fireworks is allowed only between 8 a.m. and midnight (1 a.m. News Year’s Day).
Launching such fireworks are prohibited from public, school or church property or in a public street. A private property owner must provide permission for fireworks, as well.
Minors and those under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance are banned from using fireworks, as well, although that provision is not included in Commerce Township’s ordinance.
Salem Township and Green Oak Township do not have a local ordinance on fireworks.