El Paso Police Handle More Than 2,000 Fireworks Calls on the 4th
A ban on fireworks in the county of El Paso you say? Pfft. I don't think so. At least, that seems to be how most people treated the ban on fireworks in El Paso County. I myself got to witness the complete lack of respect for the law. (Boom, Smokey and the Bandit reference)
My family and I were at the in-laws place on Saturday, not really thinking much about fireworks. We headed out around 10pm or so, and as we were driving home we noticed a pretty good amount of fireworks going off. So, rather than getting home and calling it a night, I decided I was going to take the family on a quick road trip up Transmountain. We've been on lockdown for almost 4 months now and dammit, my wife and kid love fireworks.
So we cruised on up Transmountain and got to enjoy a pretty good show. While we were up there it was far more active on the west side than it was the east. But apparently there was still a lot of activity on the east side as I have friends on social media who weren't happy their neighbors were popping fireworks until 2am.
On Saturday, from 8am to midnight, so not even including the post midnight calls, the El Paso Police Department and Fire Department took 2,137 calls on fireworks and incidents related to fireworks.
One of the reasons we chose to go to Transmountain and overlook the west side of the city was New Mexico did have nearly the same restrictions Texas did.