Santee, CA Fire Regulations: Fireworks (2026)

Section 5.02.010 makes it unlawful for any person to purchase, discharge, fire, use, possess or store any type of fireworks, including firecrackers, bombs, rockets, torpedoes or roman candles, or any substance intended for pyrotechnic display, within the City. The same section also bars firing a pistol, cane, cannon, or similar appliance using blank cartridges or caps containing a chlorate-of-potash mixture, and separately bars selling, exhibiting, using or possessing fireworks, gun powder, explosives, or a chlorate-of-potash combination. Because the ban covers purchase and possession as well as discharge, even bringing legally purchased fireworks from outside the City into Santee for private use falls within the prohibition.

The only path to a lawful display is Section 5.02.020, under which the City Council may issue a permit for a public fireworks display, but the display must be under the direct supervision of a person holding a State pyrotechnic license who has been examined and approved by the Fire Marshal. Before that permit issues, the applicant must secure the City Fire Marshal's approval, obtain a business license under Title 4, and file a general liability insurance policy naming the City as an additional insured in an amount the fire official sets, which cannot be less than $1,000,000 combined single limit; public agencies are exempt from the additional-insured filing requirement.