Maricopa County, AZ Fire Regulations: Fireworks (2026)

Maricopa County regulates fireworks through Ordinance P-35, adopted February 23, 2022 as part of its Air Pollution Control Regulations. The scope matters: the ordinance states in its own purpose clause that it regulates fireworks within the unincorporated areas of Maricopa County, so it does not govern Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale or any other incorporated city or town in the county, each of which sets its own fireworks rules. Section 3(A) sets a broad prohibition: except as otherwise provided by the ordinance, a person shall not sell, offer or expose for sale, use, explode or possess any fireworks in unincorporated county areas.

The exception is permissible consumer fireworks, a category the ordinance defines by reference to APA 87-1 and which covers ground and handheld sparkling devices, cylindrical fountains, cone fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, toy smoke devices, and wire sparklers or dipped sticks. Even those are limited. § 36-1606, and bars sale to anyone under sixteen. Section 3(C) allows use only on those same permitted days, and adds a location restriction: permissible consumer fireworks may not be used within a one-mile radius of the border of preservation lands owned by a city or town that has purchased more than fifteen thousand acres for preservation purposes.

§ 36-1606. Novelty items such as snappers, snap caps, party poppers, glow worms, snakes, toy smoke devices and sparklers are federally deregulated and fall outside the definition of fireworks entirely.