July 4 is a wonderful and exciting celebration. Americans should be celebrating the day of our country’s birth with beautiful fireworks.

But do we need fireworks going off in residential areas, where there’s always that chance they could start a house fire? Especially with those fireworks that shoot up into the air with the possibility that still-burning debris could land on rooftops and set a house on fire? This is dangerous.

This practice should be truly against the law and not be taken for granted or ignored. Those caught breaking this law should be penalized or jailed to teach them a lesson.

On one of the streets of Lakeland Hills where I live, fireworks were lit up by a neighbor continuously for about an hour and a half, from 10 to 11:30 p.m., on July 4.

When the fireworks wouldn’t stop, I called 911, but I was told by the operator that there’s a “high volume of calls” regarding this matter and that my call would “be answered in the order it was received.” And that I would “be put on hold, or I can hang up and call again.” I called four times, and each time I was put on hold. So, I finally gave up.

Lighting up fireworks had been banned in our neighborhood. And from what I understand, there is an Auburn Police officer “hired and paid for” by our HOA that continuously patrols our neighborhood. May I ask, what happened to this officer, and how come he didn’t perform one of his duties in stopping the lighting up of fireworks in our neighborhood?

– Jesse Jose