Decades after devastating fire, Iowa warily allows fireworks
ADEL, Iowa — On a scorching day 86 years ago, a dropped sparkler ignited an inferno that roared through much of the small city of Spencer, Iowa, and led to a statewide fireworks ban that endured for generations.
Fireworks have since become legal in most of the country and Iowa legislators voted this year to end the bans. But with the Fourth of July approaching, officials in many cities are resisting fireworks sales and prohibiting people from setting off newly legal bottle rockets, firecrackers and roman candles.
“They’ve made it really tough,” said Todd Wallace, who gave up on plans to sell fireworks from a tent in a grassy field on the edge of Des Moines. “There would be no impact on anybody, but the city said, ‘no can do.’”
Many Iowa officials remain keenly aware of the blaze that engulfed about 100 buildings in Spencer on a 97-degree (36-degrees-Celsius), windy June day in 1931, when a fire started by a sparkler at Bjornstad’s drugstore quickly spread.