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But residents of Barnegat Township were treated -- or to some residents mistreated -- by 10 times the usual number of amateur pyrotechnic displays, police estimated.
At least five people were charged with illegal fireworks possession or use, Barnegat police said.
There were so many fireworks complaints in the Ocean County township that its police department posted a heat-sensory map of the displays on Sunday. Fireworks had “the greater Ocean County area looking like Magic Kingdom,” Barnegat police said in a Facebook post.
Between July 1 and midnight on July 4, Barnegat police responded to 64 fireworks complaints. Of those, 38 were on July 4, police said. There was only one fireworks complaint over the same four-day period in 2019, police said.
Toms River was the only Ocean County town to host a public fireworks display last weekend. Aerial fireworks, including skyrockets and Roman candles, are illegal in New Jersey.
Barnegat Police Chief Keith A. Germain told NJ Advance Media, "It certainly was the highest volume of fireworks-related calls I’ve seen in 26 years."
“My gut is that it’s a combination of people who’ve been cooped up doing their best to comply with the Governor’s executive orders combined with the mistaken belief that all fireworks have been legalized in NJ,” Germain told nj.com. However, most of the local rocket-launches were cooperative when police were called, the chief said.
The American Pyrotechnics Association expected an all-time high in backyard fireworks sales this year as families relied on at-home celebrations.
Another way to track spikes in fireworks are levels of air pollution. Pollution in Fort Lee rose sharply around 9 p.m., about 30 minutes after the sun set, and a spike in Newark began about an hour before sunset, according to data from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
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