Few arrests, no serious fireworks injuries locally for Fourth holiday

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at the Aurora Independence Day celebration Monday at Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora. Mary Beth Nolan~For Sun-Times Media

Updated: October 29, 2011 12:40AM

Although the complaints flowed in all weekend, police said there were few arrests and no significant injuries from fireworks over the holiday weekend.

Police departments in Kane and Kendall counties reported no significant incidents with fireworks this year, although nearly every department said they were again inundated with noise complaint calls. In many cases, the amateur show had stopped before officers arrived, police said.

Oswego police said officers issued municipal tickets to two people, although their names were not available. In Aurora, Orlin Cano, 22, 1700 block of Felten Road, Aurora, was charged with misdemeanor unlawful possession of fireworks at 10 p.m. Friday at his house. His bail was set at $150, police said. He is scheduled to be in court July 28.

Before the holiday, the DuPage County sheriff’s office warned residents about experimenting with commercial grade fireworks.

For the last three years, the DuPage County sheriff’s office said, someone in the county has been killed while playing with fireworks. The most recent was on Memorial Day weekend, when a 47-year-old Addison man was killed when fireworks he was lighting from a home-made launcher exploded.

A decade ago, the DuPage County Sheriff’s Hazardous Devices Unit deputies would confiscate about 1,000 M-80s or similar illegal fireworks every year. Now, they only grab about 100 a year, but they are finding more higher level, professional-grade fireworks usually seen in municipal shows.

Although such explosives are not legal to sell to unlicensed amateurs anywhere in the United States, officers have been pulling between 500 and 700 of these professional-level fireworks off the streets each year.