Washington County, WI Fire Regulations: Fireworks (2026)

Washington County Code § 172-6, Sale and use of fireworks regulated, adopts § 167.10, Wis. Stats., and its definitions by reference but layers the County's own sale ban and permit requirement on top: whichever provision, state or County, is stricter controls if they conflict. Subsection C makes it unlawful for any person to sell, offer to sell, possess with intent to sell, or give away fireworks anywhere within the County, except as § 167.10(2), Wis. Stats., allows. Subsection D goes further on use: no person may possess or use fireworks without a user's permit issued by the city, village or town where the fireworks will be used, except as § 167.10(3), Wis. Stats., provides. Even at a permitted public fireworks display, § 172-6E bars an unauthorized person from using fireworks, caps, snakes or sparklers at that display.

The definition in Subsection B pulls in every item listed in § 167.10(1) of the Wisconsin Statutes, including items added at § 167.10(1)(k) through (n), but expressly carries over the state's exclusion of caps, toy snakes and sparklers as defined at § 167.10(1)(e), (f) and (i). Storage and handling of fireworks must follow § 167.10(6), Wis. Stats., under Subsection F. Because the permit for use is issued town-by-town, city-by-city or village-by-village rather than by the County, a resident of one of the County's eleven towns needs to check with that town, not the County, before setting off anything beyond sparklers or caps.