With the July 4 holiday approaching, Williamson County and city of Georgetown officials want to ensure residents remain safe while using fireworks.

Williamson County commissioners took no action June 10 to restrict the sale of fireworks in the unincorporated areas of the county during the July fireworks season.

The county, which has the ability regulate the sale of some fireworks including rockets with sticks and missiles with fins, would have to take action by June 15, said Jarred Thomas, Williamson County emergency management coordinator.

Thomas said for the county to take action, the Keetch-Byram Drought Indexthe average measure of ground moisture throughout the countymust be at or above 575 on a scale of zero to 800, in which zero represents complete saturation and 800 represents a complete lack of moisture.

The countys current drought index is less than 250, Thomas said.

Although the county has not banned the sale or use of fireworks, each city within the county is able to set its own ordinances regulating fireworks, he said.

There are still a lot of places that are not covered by a city ordinance, he said. So most of the larger cities like Taylor, Hutto, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, all of those have the ordinance that says no sale or use.

On June 10 Georgetown City Council amended its fireworks ordinance, which prohibits the use of fireworks within the city limits or within 5,000 feet of the city limits, to further define what is restricted as well as where and clarify authorization of the police and fire chief to enforce the ordinance, said Fire Chief John Sullivan.

The list of restricted fireworks within the city includes sparklers, which caused some debate from the dais after Councilman Keith Brainard requested sparklers be removed from the ordinance.

The sparklers themselves, they seem to be minor in nature both from a handling perspective as well as a fire perspective, but I would suggest that there are a lot of cases where there are significant burns that do take place with sparklers, Sullivan said. Also there are a lot of fires that do begin because of sparklers.

Sullivan said that sparklers, which burn at 1,800 degrees, are one of the leading causes of injuries related to fireworks.

Council members denied the motion to remove sparklers before approving the amended ordinance with a 6-1 vote with Brainard voting in opposition.

City Manager Paul Brandenburg said the use of fireworks in the city limits or within 5,000 feet of the city limits could result in a fine of up to $5,000.