I WA LIFE
SUDOKU
THE FIREWORKS THAT ALMOST KILLED US ALL (TWICE)
IOWA’S EXPLOSIVE FOURTH OF JULY HISTORY
SALES AND SUCCES S
As Darin mentioned on Pg. 1, personal fireworks were illegal here in Iowa 1937–2017, which included the period when his kids were growing up. But why? It turns out our state has a very explosive history with, well, explosives! According to the State Library of Iowa, two fiery incidents in particular led to the fireworks ban.
APARTMENT
DISASTER NO. 1: SPENCER, IOWA — 1931
On June 27, a little boy lit up a sparkler in Otto Bjornstad’s drugstore in Spencer, Iowa. He started playing with the firework, and moments later, he dropped it onto a table full of other explosives for sale. As you can imagine, the drugstore went up like a powder keg. The fire destroyed a total of 25 buildings and 50 more were damaged. The Des Moines Register reported the fire caused more than $2 million in damages and reached 900 degrees F — hot enough to melt the drugstore’s marbles.
DISASTER NO. 2: REMSEN, IOWA — 1936
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Just five years after the Spencer explosion, a girl living in Remsen, Iowa, ruined the whole town’s Fourth of July when she accidentally dropped a sparkler onto a pile of gasoline-soaked rags. The garage the girl was standing in went up, followed by 20 surrounding businesses. The State Library of Iowa reports that the incident left 100 people homeless in the summer heat. Considering both of those terrible fires, it’s no wonder the Iowa legislature voted to ban the sale, possession, and use of fireworks statewide in 1937! Of course, for the next half-dozen decades and beyond, Iowans continued to find ways to get around the ban and shoot off fireworks safely at home, just like Darin and his family did. In 2017, the state legislature finally repealed the ban just in time for the Fourth of July. Today, you’ll find Iowans all around the state going nuts (in a fun way) with explosives around the holiday, from firecrackers, smoke bombs, and fountains to the big boys!
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