COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 482
(By Senators Love, Wiedebusch, Bowman,
Schoonover, Buckalew and Blatnik)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 22, 1995.]
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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 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 grain 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 twenty-five hundredths of a grain
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 twenty-five hundredths of a grain of explosive
mixture with string protruding from both ends. The strings are pulled to activate the friction-sensitive mixture, producing a
small report.
(c) A snapper or drop pop, which is a small paper wrapped
item containing no more than twenty-five hundredths of a grain
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.