LOS ANGELES — While police and fire agencies across Southern California continue to gear up for what likely will be a busy Fourth of July holiday with heightened calls for service, law enforcement has been working for months to find illegal fireworks and take them off the streets before they cause serious injuries or potentially start wildfires.

Over the past five years, more than 1.8 million pounds of illegal fireworks have been confiscated across California, state Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant said at a press conference at the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s headquarters in East Los Angeles Thursday, June 2.

“That is equal to 72 semitrucks filled with dangerous products,” he said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, in 2025, said more than 600,000 pounds of illegal fireworks were seized across the state last year. That number was more than double the 10-year average of about 240,000 per year and more than what was seized in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, according to Cal Fire’s Office of the State Fire Marshal, which reported nearly 475,000 pounds were seized that year.

Partnering with local agencies, Berlant said, authorities have worked to identify illegal fireworks trafficking routes, intercept large shipments and hold violators accountable.

“Our mission is clear,” Berlant said Thursday. “Reduce injuries, prevent fires and protect Californians by stopping the illegal flow of dangerous fireworks before they reach our communities.”

In California, illegal fireworks are defined as any consumer pyrotechnic that explodes, shoots into the air or moves uncontrollably on the ground. Types of devices include firecrackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, aerial shells and wire core sparklers.

Locally, some law enforcement and fire agencies have averaged thousands of pounds of seizures over the past five years, according to data provided to the Southern California News Group.

Some, like the Long Beach Police Department, have seen decreases in seizures in recent years from more than 22,000 pounds seized in 2021 to 450 individual pieces seized in 2024.

Others, like the Orange County Fire Authority, which reports statistics from the 23 cities and unincorporated county areas it covers, as well as from some other reporting agencies across the county, were relatively steady, with just over 5,000 pounds seized annually from 2022 to 2024 before a drop to 2,300 pounds in 2025.

In Los Angeles County, the sheriff’s department reported an average of just over 4,500 pounds seized over the past five years, with a high of nearly 7,100 pounds seized in 2023. The department seized just under 4,200 pounds last year.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna on Thursday said his department has focused on illegal sales and transportation of illegal fireworks through online investigations, social media, undercover operations, surveillance and other directed enforcement efforts.

“These efforts are already producing results,” Luna said, “with arrests and seizures made in recent weeks.”

Many cities in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties ban all fireworks, while some others allow fireworks that are deemed “safe and sane.”

While departments incorporate strategies to find illegal fireworks, they also rely on tips from the public to assist in finding the explosive devices.

Many departments will roll out additional patrols, with at least some departments using drone teams to catch violators on the Fourth of July holiday, officials said.

In Riverside, Detective Steven Espinosa said the department planned to roll out five drone teams for the holiday, which include an operator, an officer and a code enforcement officer. Those drone teams can direct officers on the ground to where violations are occurring.

In Long Beach, officials said officers will make every effort to respond to reports of fireworks, “however, officers must witness the activity in order to make an arrest,” police said. “Community members who witness illegal fireworks activity also have the option to sign a private person’s arrest form which will allow officers to take action after investigating the incident.”

Already this year, Pasadena officials announced a bust of 10,000 pounds of illegal fireworks in Los Angeles, which were allegedly connected to a street gang that imported them from Nevada.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department on Thursday announced the results of a three-month investigation with San Bernardino County Fire Department arson investigators that resulted in the seizure of 7.5 tons of illegal fireworks and 32 arrests.

San Bernardino police this week announced a pair of busts resulting in the seizures of about 5,100 pounds of illegal fireworks.

Across the state, roughly 288,500 pounds of illegal fireworks were seized in 2024, according to the Office of the State Fire Marshal. More than half of that total came from one bust in Gardena, where authorities seized roughly 75 tons of illegal fireworks, believed to have been imported from China, from a warehouse and made three arrests, authorities reported. That bust remains the single largest in state history.

In one instance, the Los Angeles Police Department attempted to safely dispose of homemade fireworks on site in South Los Angeles, but a miscalculation led to an explosion of the department’s total-containment vessel, injuring more than a dozen people and causing major damage to several homes along the block.

Authorities reported 16 tons of fireworks had been amassed at the home on East 27th Street. Arturo Ceja III was arrested after investigators learned he had traveled to Nevada to purchase the fireworks with the intent on selling them for higher prices in California.

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