DHS 1.3 Permit Indiana Change

[mrrober]

I went to pull my permit for my show this year on the DHS portal as I normally would and noticed a change on the permit once it was emailed over. There is now a section on the bottom of the permit for the Local Fire Chief to sign and date approving of the display and shoot site. It also states the permit is not valid until signed. Just a heads up as the last 3 permits I pulled never required a signature in the past. I wanted to get everyone's thoughts on this and get feedback from fellow IN pyro Hobbyist about the permit process.

[displayfireworks1]

Can you post a hyperlink to the site so we can view the document. Or scan and post the documents

[mrrober]

Here is a Hyperlink and Attachment of the bottom half of the permit.

In prior years all it said was ATTENTION: FIRE CHIEF and the bottom was blank. Besides that everything else was the same.


https://www.in.gov/dhs/fire-and-building-safety/code-enforcement/fireworks-information/#Supervised_Public_Display_of_Fireworks

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[displayfireworks1]

The part I do not like is, granted they have some say if it is a public display. However, I see they specifically address in the language if the gathering is for a private event, they still consider that an event requiring the same requirement’s.
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This DHS which I assume is a State of Indiana entity acts as if the local fire chief is their free employee. This local fire chief, (most of whom are volunteers) is supposed to volunteer his time and expense to visit these sites, assess the distance, review your experience, assess what you are purchasing and place judgement on if you are competent to use a ATF Federally regulated product. This assumes the local fire chief is competent enough himself in pyrotechnics
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There is also some language advising the local fire chief to be certain his email is current. I suspect when you apply for the permit, they will copy the local fire chief. The state of Indiana hired a free employee and push their responsibility on him. They also acknowledge in the language lots of this 1.3 fireworks shooting is going on without permits.
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Without researching into it deeper. I suspect the State of Indiana is funding these local fire departments to some degree and will attach this local fire chief responsibility to the funding, I also suspect a recent accident or event happened, some company that does for profit displays in Indiana is complaining someone is stealing their displays and not following rules, or many private ATF license holders are just not shooting proper shells for the clearance. This can also be an effort to deter private ATF license holders. Why, because again in the language they state if you only use 1.4 products, you do not need to meet any of these permit requirements.
I have been in parts of Indiana near that Indiana Chicago area for the July 4th holiday and it literally sounds like a war zone of fireworks activity. LOL

[BMoore]

Hopefully someone in IN will chime in. I live about 20 minutes from the IN border and have attended some IN shoots. My understanding was that the local fire chief had to do a site inspection and sign off on the permit application. The approved permit then went to the fire chief to who passed it along to the shooter. So what has changed? Is the process now reversed in that the permit now get auto-approved by DHS but is not effective until signed off on by the fire chief? If that’s the case, what happens to the $69 application fee if it isn’t approved?

[Salutecake]

Not from IN but I always find it funny and (please don't take this as picking on people) that automatically it's the Fire Chief that needs to give approval - but what are their qualificatons to determine what is or is not safe? In essance we need to get approval from someone who probably knows very little about fireworks. and does that mean if something goes wrong we can blame the fire chief for a bad inspection.