People around Albuquerque fed up with illegal fireworks

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Fourth of July is right around the corner, and many people seem to be starting their celebration early, but their neighbors don’t like it. A quick search on neighborhood apps like Nextdoor and 311, shows dozens of people who are fed up with hearing the loud cracking of illegal fireworks every night.

“Just south of my street is a big open desert, in the Pajarito area. I’m down the street from Atrisco Heritage High School, and I’m concerned with a wildfire starting,” said Rick Zamaroon, an Albuquerque resident who says he’s been hearing fireworks every night for the past few weeks.

Zamarron says the noise starts every night around nine o’clock, driving his dog crazy, and keeping him awake. He’s not the only one, we found people from all over the metro complaining.

One man who lives near Louisiana and Gibson says he hears the fireworks until two o’clock in the morning. Others who live near Eubank and Comanche say they’ve been hearing them since the beginning of June, saying they seem to have started earlier this year. But Albuquerque Fire Rescue says that doesn’t appear to be the case.

AFR says it’s typical in the weeks leading up to July 4, to see a lot of illegal fireworks complaints. This year, they say the number of complaints they’ve received is actually down from last year at the same time.

“At this point, we’ve received approximately 527 calls for reports of illegal fireworks. Last year at this time we’d received about 650,” said Lieutenant Tom Ruiz. “So from what we can tell they’re actually a little bit down from last year,” said Ruiz.

AFR is asking people to report their firework complaints to the 311 hotlines, app, or website because it allows them to track the problem areas. People say when they file the reports, nothing gets done. AFR says they will not send crews out to these complaints, instead they’ll send cease and desist letter to the person lighting the fireworks. They say it’s important to list the correct address on the complaints.

Last week Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham urged local government leaders to ban firework sales this summer, because of the dry conditions. If you get caught using illegal fireworks, you can face a $500 fine and up to 90 days in jail.