Senate Bill No. 482
(By Senators Love, Wiedebusch, Bowman,
Schoonover, Buckalew and Blatnik)
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[Introduced February 20, 1995; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-three, article three,
chapter twenty-nine of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
fireworks; and permitting the sale of safe fireworks.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-three, article three, chapter
twenty-nine of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read
as follows:
ARTICLE 3. FIRE PREVENTION AND CONTROL ACT.
§29-3-23. "Fireworks" defined; labels required.
The term "fireworks" means and includes any combustible or
explosive composition, or any substance or combination of
substances, or article prepared for the purpose of producing a
visible or an audible effect by combustion, explosion,
deflagration or detonation, and shall include blank cartridges,
toy pistols, toy cannons, toy canes or toy guns in which explosives are used, the type of unmanned balloons which require
fire underneath to propel the same, firecrackers, torpedoes,
skyrockets, roman candles, daygo bombs sparklers or other
fireworks of like construction and any fireworks containing any
explosive or flammable compound, or any tablets or other device
containing any explosive substance, except that the term
"fireworks" shall not include:
(1) Model rockets and model rocket engines, designed, sold
and used for the purpose of propelling recoverable acro models
and shall not include toy pistols, toy canes, toy guns or other
devices in which paper or plastic caps manufactured in accordance
with the United States department of transportation regulations
for packing and shipping of toy paper or plastic caps are used
and toy paper or plastic caps manufactured as provided therein,
the sale and use of which shall be permitted at all times. Each
package containing toy paper or plastic caps offered for retail
sale shall be labeled to indicate the maximum explosive content
per cap.
(2) Explosive caps designed to be fired in toy pistols,
provided that the explosive mixture of the caps shall not exceed
twenty-five hundredths of a gram for each cap.
(3) Snake and glow worms composed of pressed pellets of a
pyrotechnic mixture that produce a large snake-like ash when
burning.
(4) Smoke devices consisting of a tube or sphere containing a pyrotechnic mixture that produces white or colored smoke.
(5) Trick noisemakers which produce a small report designed
to surprise the user and which include:
(a) A party popper, which is a small plastic or paper item
containing not in excess of sixteen milligrams of explosive
mixture. A string protruding from the device is pulled to
activate the device, expelling paper streamers and producing a
small report.
(b) A string popper which is a small tube containing not in
excess of sixteen milligrams of explosive mixture with string
protruding from both ends. The strings are pulled to activate
the fiction-sensitive mixture, producing a small report.
(c) A snapper or drop pop, which is a small paper wrapped
item containing no more than sixteen milligrams of explosive
mixture coated on small bits of sand. When dropped, the device
produces a small report.
(6) Wire sparklers consisting of wire or stick coated with
nonexplosive pyrotechnic mixture that produces a shower of sparks
upon ignition. These items must not exceed one hundred grams of
mixture per item.
(7) Other sparkling devices which emit showers of sparks and
sometimes a whistling or crackling effect when burning, do not
detonate or explode, are hand-held or ground-based, cannot propel
themselves through the air and contain not more than seventy-five
grams of chemical compound per tube or not more than a total of two hundred grams if multiple tubes are used.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to list and expand the
types of fireworks permitted to be sold in the state.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.