Tuscaloosa, AL Fire Regulations: Fireworks (2026)

Section 11-50 of the Tuscaloosa City Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 9167 on January 11, 2022, flatly prohibits possessing, manufacturing, storing, selling, handling or using fireworks inside the city. The ordinance replaced an older Article IV that Ordinance No. 6566 had repealed outright in 2003, meaning Tuscaloosa went without a dedicated fireworks chapter for almost two decades before the current ban was codified. The ban applies to everyone: residents cannot legally light backyard fireworks, and no retailer can open a fireworks stand within city limits without falling into one of the four listed exceptions.

Those exceptions track the city fire code rather than granting a general consumer carve-out: storage and handling permitted under fire code Section 5604, manufacture, assembly and testing permitted under Section 5605, and licensed public fireworks displays permitted under Section 5608. 4G ('safe and sane') consumer fireworks only where other laws and ordinances already allow them, and only if the fireworks and the selling facility meet the 2006 edition of NFPA 1124 and federal consumer-product and transportation rules under 16 CFR Parts 1500 and 1507 and 49 CFR Parts 100-185.

Section 11-50(c) designates a city police officer, not the fire marshal, as the officer authorized to enforce the ban, so a resident setting off fireworks in a yard or subdivision street can be cited directly by patrol officers. Because Chapter 11 sets no separate fine for Section 11-50, any violation falls back on the Code's general penalty section, Sec. 1-8, and the state statute it incorporates.