Theories range from coordinated efforts to blame those protesting against police brutality to bored people blowing off steam following coronavirus lockdowns.
Most states allow at least some types of consumer fireworks, making them difficult to contain in cities like New York where they're banned because people can drive a couple of hours away to buy them legally.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio set up a multiagency task force in hope of getting answers, after blasts from Brooklyn to the Bronx have people in the city that never sleeps desperate to actually get some.
Made up of police, firefighters and the Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the task force will conduct sting operations to try to stop the sales of explosives that are proving dangerous. A 3-year-old boy was injured today while watching fireworks from his apartment window.
"This is a real problem. It is not just a quality-of-life problem and a noise problem," de Blasio said.
Many Fourth of July celebrations will be smaller or eliminated entirely because of coronavirus restrictions.
Yet the business of fireworks is booming, with some retailers reporting 200 per cent increases from the same time last year, Heckman said.
Her industry had high hopes for 2020, with July 4 falling on a Saturday. Then came the pandemic and its closures and cancellations, leaving fireworks retailers worried they wouldn't be able to scratch out much of a sales season.
Those fears have gone up in smoke.
"Sales are off the hook right now. We're seeing this anomaly in use," Heckman said.
"What's concerning to us is this usage in cities where consumer fireworks are not legal to use."
Officials have the same concern.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said there are too many reports of fireworks being set off across the state, where they are mostly illegal.
"This is no way to blow off steam," he told reporters in Trenton, the capital.
New Jersey outlaws pyrotechnics except for sparklers and snakes, which produce smoke but don't explode, though residents have easy access to fireworks at shops in Pennsylvania.
In Morrisville, Pennsylvania, Trenton's neighbour, a big shop sits at the foot of the bridge leading to New Jersey. Yesterday, the parking lot was nearly full, with cars primarily from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but others from New York, North Carolina and even Texas.
Officials in Oakland, California, say they have received more complaints of illegal fireworks and reports of celebratory gunfire this year than is typical before the Fourth of July. At least five fires have been linked to fireworks since late May, officials said.
In Denver, authorities seized up to 1360kg of illegal fireworks discovered during a traffic stop this week.
Theories abound for why fireworks have become so popular.
Some speculate on social media that police are either setting them off themselves or giving them to local teens in hopes people blame those protesting racist policing. Another claim says police are just harassing communities of colour.
"My neighbours and I believe that this is part of a coordinated attack on black and brown communities by government forces," tweeted the writer Robert Jones, whose recent posts on fireworks have been retweeted thousands of times.
A video captured in New York appears to show fire department staff setting off the explosives outside their station.
Pyrotechnics expert Mike Tockstein, who has directed hundreds of professional fireworks shows, thinks there's an easier explanation: the upcoming holiday and a nation filled with young people fed up with quarantines.
"I've heard a lot of conspiracy theories, and none of them are based in logic or data or facts," said Tockstein, owner of Pyrotechnic Innovations, a California-based company that trains fireworks professionals.
"Fireworks are used across the entire country for a full month leading up to the Fourth of July," he said. "There is a slight uptick, but I don't think it's anything more than people are stuck at home and hey, look, fireworks are available."
- AP
