Mountain View, CA Fire Regulations: Fireworks (2026)

City Code Sec. 14.28.05 amends California Fire Code Subsection 5601.1.3 for Mountain View to prohibit the possession, manufacture, storage, sale, handling and use of fireworks citywide, and the ordinance specifically calls out that this includes fireworks classified as 'Safe and Sane' by the California State Fire Marshal, the category many neighboring cities allow around the Fourth of July. Mountain View is not one of them: no fireworks stands operate in the city, and residents cannot legally set off Safe and Sane fireworks in their own yard or driveway.

Three narrow exceptions survive. Storage and handling of fireworks is permitted only as allowed under Fire Code Sec. 5604, covering licensed wholesale or retail storage facilities. Manufacture, assembly and testing is permitted only as allowed under Fire Code Sec. 5605 and Health and Safety Code Division 11, covering licensed fireworks manufacturers. And fireworks displays, pyrotechnics before a proximate audience, and pyrotechnic special effects in film, television, or theatrical productions are permitted only under Title 19, Division 1, Chapter 6 as reprinted at Fire Code Sec. 5608 and Health and Safety Code Division 11, meaning a professional, licensed operator with a public display permit. The city's amendment also deletes 'Exception 4' from the state model code entirely, closing off an additional state carve-out.

Enforcement runs through Fire Code Sec. 113.4 as locally amended: any violation of the Fire Code, including the fireworks ban, is a misdemeanor punishable under the City Charter, with each day of a continuing violation treated as a separate offense. The Mountain View Fire Department increases patrols and confiscates illegal fireworks around July 4th and Lunar New Year, and state law separately lets the city recover firefighting costs when illegal fireworks ignite a fire.