Broken Arrow police Firework Task Force will be out during holiday

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (KTUL) — You can't have the Fourth of July without fireworks. It's what makes Independence Day explosive.

That's what Ed Graham of Broken Arrow thought when he decided to throw a Fourth of July block party.

"Starting at dusk, we're going to be setting off fireworks, and we have a lot of fireworks. We'll be setting them off for two solid hours," he said. "We have about 40 to 45 large 500-gram kegs."

Graham has been doing this ever since Broken Arrow made it legal to shoot fireworks on the Fourth.

"You must have a permit to utilize fireworks inside the city," said Broken Arrow PD PIO James Koch.

Koch says they plan to have more police officers on the streets this holiday.

"Anything, any fireworks-related call, a call for service that comes into our communications division, those officers will be dispatched to those calls."

People can shoot fireworks during the allowed timeframe.

Police will be patrolling the city, handing out fines to people without permits and who don't pick up their debris.

It can be costly if you break the law. Tickets are as much as $570.

Graham tells me that it's all about safety and fun, something he learned in the past.

"We actually set our neighbor's yard on fire one year, because a firework fell over and shot into their yard. It wasn't a very big fire, and we joke about it all the time," Graham said.

People in Broken Arrow will be allowed to shoot off fireworks on July 3rd and 4th from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.