Fort Collins, CO Fire Regulations: Fireworks (2026)

3 to state that the possession, manufacture, storage, sale, handling and use of fireworks are prohibited, with only two listed exceptions: storage and handling permitted under Section 5604, and use in a fireworks display permitted under Section 5608. City Code § 9-22 defines fireworks by reference to Section 202 of the 2021 International Fire Code, while excluding items such as toy caps holding no more than twenty-five hundredths of a grain of explosive compound, highway flares and other emergency signal devices, nonmetallic model rocket engines using less than two ounces of propellant, and fireworks used for testing or research by a licensed explosives laboratory.

A public fireworks display is only lawful when a qualified pyrotechnic operator complies with the fire code and secures Fire Code Official approval plus any conditions imposed. City Code § 9-23 separately bars any person from using fireworks, or being present with possessory control where fireworks are used, except as the fire code allows or under a City special events permit, folding the fireworks ban into the same prohibited open fires and open burning article that governs campfires and burn bans. Because the exceptions run only to licensed storage, handling, and permitted public displays, ordinary consumer fireworks such as bottle rockets, firecrackers, and aerial shells remain unlawful to possess or set off anywhere in the city, including on private property, for individual residents.