With the hot weather and dry conditions recently, there has been an extreme danger of fire. And last weekend just happened to be the Fourth of July. There was grave concern of out-of-control grass fires burning down houses. That was not beyond the realm of possibility.

Many asked Gov. Jay Inslee for a state of emergency banning the use of fireworks. But he said he did not have the power to do that.

Under certain conditions, the governor has the power to ban alcohol, limit the use of firearms, close streets and call up the National Guard, but he doesn’t have the power to ban fireworks in an extremely dangerous situation?

That makes no sense at all. Public safety was at risk, and he was powerless.

The Legislature needs to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future. The laws certainly are unclear. The governor didn’t feel like he had the power so he just strongly recommended for people not to use personal fireworks, but to attend public shows instead. The state fire marshal thought the governor did have the power. Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring’s staff researched if he or even our local fire marshal had the power.

The Legislature needs to clear up this issue. Give the governor the power, or even local fire marshals if the drought is only in certain areas. But it would be ridiculous to not learn from this and correct the problem.

Thanks to responsible citizens in Marysville and Arlington, there was no disaster locally. As requested by Mayor Barbara Tolbert, the number of people using fireworks in Arlington was way down. Many did attend the city’s fireworks show.

In both communities, people shooting fireworks off illegally before the 4th were way down.

In Marysville, where there is no public display, the Fourth by all accounts was much quieter than usual. Calls to the fire and police departments were up because of the citizenry’s concern about fires. But most people were shooting off legal fireworks, many of which are similar to illegal ones, except that they aren’t as loud.

Even the police and fire chief were impressed with how responsible this year’s fireworks enthusiasts were. Police gave out warnings and educated people. But the most-impressive action was so many people were ready with garden hoses and shovels that most blazes were put out before the fire department even got there.

The only issue was so many people were using water to keep fires from happening that too much water was being used. If a major fire had occurred, having enough water to put it out would have been an issue.

We were so close to a disaster. The Legislature needs to act so we don’t come that close again.