OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.B. 172 Final Analysis
134th General Assembly
Click here for H.B. 172’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Passed by the General Assembly
Primary Sponsors: Reps. Baldridge and O’Brien
Effective date: Emergency: certain provisions effective November 4, 2021; other provisions
effective February 7, 2022, or July 1, 2022
Effective Date:
Andrew Little, Attorney
SUMMARY
Effective November 4, 2021
 Extends a general moratorium on the issuance of new, and geographic transfer of
existing, fireworks manufacturer or wholesaler licenses from December 31, 2021, to
December 31, 2022.
 Establishes a one-time license application and issuance date, outside of the normal
fireworks manufacturer and wholesaler licensing timeline, at the end of the new license
moratorium.
Effective February 7, 2022
 Establishes the Ohio Fire Code Rule Recommendation Committee to review the
Fireworks Law and make recommendations to the State Fire Marshal.
 Requires the State Fire Marshal to adopt rules regulating the time, manner, and location
of consumer fireworks use.
 Imposes a 4% fee on the retail sale of consumer grade fireworks, beginning May 18,
2022.
 Credits revenue from the new fee to fund firefighter training programs and the State
Fire Marshal’s administration of the Fireworks Law.
 Creates a new license allowing retailers to sell ground-based or hand-held sparklers
called “fountain devices.”
 Requires the State Fire Marshal to enforce the new provisions for fountain device
retailers and to adopt related rules.
December 13, 2021
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 Increases from 5,000 to 7,500 square feet the maximum floor area of a retail sales
showroom, to which the public has access, that a licensed fireworks manufacturer or
wholesaler uses to sell consumer grade fireworks, but requires expanded showrooms to
be equipped with sprinkler systems meeting a specific standard.
 Establishes that the “state militia” for purposes of an existing exemption from the
Fireworks Law is the state militia as recognized by the Adjutant General of Ohio.
Effective July 1, 2022
 Allows individuals to possess consumer-grade fireworks in Ohio, eliminating a
requirement that purchasers transport consumer-grade fireworks out of the state within
48 hours of purchase.
 Allows any person authorized to possess consumer grade fireworks to discharge them
on their own property or on another person’s property with permission on the following
days:
 New Year’s Day;
 Chinese New Year;
 Cinco de Mayo;
 Memorial Day weekend;
 Juneteenth;
 July 3, 4, and 5, and the Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays preceding and following;
 Labor Day weekend;
 Diwali;
 New Year’s Eve.
 Permits local governments to restrict the dates and times that individuals may discharge
consumer-grade fireworks or to impose a complete ban on the use of consumer-grade
fireworks.
 Requires licensed retailers, manufacturers, and wholesalers selling consumer grade
fireworks to the general public to offer safety glasses at the point of sale, for free or a
nominal charge.
 Requires licensed retailers, manufacturers, and wholesalers selling consumer grade
fireworks to the general public to also provide purchasers with a safety pamphlet that
contains, at a minimum, specified information.
 Prohibits discharging fireworks (1) while in possession of, or under the influence of,
alcohol or a controlled substance, or (2) on the property of another without the
property owner’s permission.
 Allows the State Fire Marshal to suspend a fireworks manufacturer or wholesaler license
if the licensee has violated the Fireworks Law or the State Fire Marshal’s rules.
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 Prohibits the State Fire Marshal from unreasonably withholding a variance that would
allow hobbyists to manufacture, possess, and use individual display-grade and
consumer-grade fireworks and requires cause for revocation of a hobbyist variance.
 Requires hobbyists seeking variances to demonstrate that they can engage in the hobby
safely and legally, and limits hobbyists to possession of five pounds of raw materials and
finished fireworks produced through the hobby.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Effective November 4, 2021, due to emergency clause ................................................................. 4
Geographic transfer moratorium ................................................................................................ 4
Fireworks license moratorium and one-time license period ...................................................... 4
Fire Code Rule Recommendation Committee ............................................................................ 5
Rules for consumer-grade fireworks use .................................................................................... 6
Consumer-grade fireworks fee.................................................................................................... 6
Fountain device retailer licenses ................................................................................................. 7
General licensing process ....................................................................................................... 7
Special licensing circumstances .............................................................................................. 8
Licensed fountain device retailer operations ......................................................................... 8
Rules for fountain device retailers ......................................................................................... 9
Enforcement authority ......................................................................................................... 10
Showroom size .......................................................................................................................... 10
Militia exemption ...................................................................................................................... 11
Effective July 1, 2022 .................................................................................................................... 11
Consumer-grade fireworks ........................................................................................................ 11
Purchase and possession ...................................................................................................... 11
Use and regulation .................................................................................................................... 11
Display-grade fireworks ................................................................................................................ 12
New prohibitions........................................................................................................................... 12
Licensee discipline ..................................................................................................................... 13
Exemptions to the Fireworks Law ............................................................................................. 13
Licensing variances ............................................................................................................... 13
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DETAILED ANALYSIS
Effective November 4, 2021, due to emergency clause
The act includes an emergency clause for provisions extending a moratorium on the
issuance of new fireworks manufacturer and wholesaler licenses and the geographic transfer of
existing licenses. Due to the emergency clause, those provisions took effect November 4, 2021.1
Geographic transfer moratorium
The act extends for one year the moratorium on the geographic transfer of fireworks
manufacturer and wholesaler licenses, which was scheduled to expire on December 31, 2021.
Under the act, this moratorium is set to expire on December 31, 2022.2
Fireworks license moratorium and one-time license period
The act also extends the general moratorium on the issuance of new fireworks
manufacturer and wholesaler licenses for a particular plant or location. Under prior law, the
moratorium applied to all persons except those who already possessed a license for that plant
or location immediately prior to June 29, 2001, and would have expired on December 31, 2021.
The act extends the moratorium until December 31, 2022, and allows renewal of licenses that
were geographically transferred under exceptions to the transfer moratorium created by the
2021 Transportation Budget, H.B. 74 of the 134th General Assembly.
To coincide with the planned end of the new-license moratorium, the act establishes a
one-time license period for new fireworks manufacturers and wholesalers. Any person who
does not hold a fireworks manufacturer license that will run through January 1, 2023, may
submit an application for one by November 1, 2022. If the application meets the requirements
for licensure, the State Fire Marshal must issue a license on January 1, 2023.
Licenses issued at the end of the moratorium will run through November 30, 2023. The
issuance date and license period are a departure from continuing law’s usual requirements,
which only allow fireworks manufacturer and wholesaler licenses to be issued on the first day
of December, with a one-year duration.
Under the act, after the moratorium expires, the State Fire Marshal may issue new
fireworks manufacturer and wholesaler licenses, but those licenses must not be approved in a
manner that unduly burdens the State Fire Marshal’s ability to ensure public safety.3
1 Sections 3 and 5.
2 R.C. 3743.75(A)(2).
3 R.C. 3743.021, 3743.041, 3743.151, 3743.171, and 3743.75(A), (D), and (E).
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Effective February 7, 2022
Several of the act’s provisions take effect on February 7, 2022.4 Those provisions are
discussed in this section.
Fire Code Rule Recommendation Committee
The act creates the Ohio Fire Code Rule Recommendation Committee to review the
Fireworks Law and make recommendations to the State Fire Marshal. At a minimum, the
Committee must make recommendations relating to:
 Fireworks wholesaler and manufacturer licensing and operations;
 Consumer-grade fireworks purchases;
 The moratorium on licenses described above;
 Building code requirements for 1.3G display-grade fireworks manufacturing facilities;
and
 A licensing program for fireworks wholesalers and manufacturers.
The Committee must meet periodically, with a first meeting by February 17, 2022. It
must submit its report and recommendations to the State Fire Marshal by May 18, 2022.
The Committee is to be made up of the following individuals:
1. The State Fire Marshal, or the State Fire Marshal’s designee;
2. Four local fire chiefs appointed by the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ Association, or appointed by the
Association’s designee;
3. A local police chief appointed by the Attorney General, or the Attorney General’s
designee;
4. Five members of the Ohio State Pyrotechnics Association, appointed by the president of
the Association, one of whom must be a licensed wholesaler, one of whom must be a
licensed exhibitor, and one of whom must be a licensed manufacturer;
5. One member of Prevent Blindness Ohio, or the organization’s designee;
6. One member of the Ohio Optometric Association or the association’s designee;
7. One member of the Ohio Pyrotechnic Arts Guild or the guild’s designee;
8. One representative of the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics,
appointed by the chapter president;
9. One member of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants or the council’s designee.5
4 Sections 3 and 5.
5 R.C. 3743.67.
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Rules for consumer-grade fireworks use
The act requires the State Fire Marshal to adopt rules regulating the time, manner, and
location of consumer grade fireworks use (see “Consumer grade fireworks,” below). The
rules must permit adults to safely and responsibly use consumer grade fireworks on private
property with the owner’s consent, and are not to be construed as a de facto ban on that use.
The rules may, however, include provisions requiring that all fireworks be used in accordance
with manufacturer’s instructions and provisions for the following:
 The use of aerial fireworks;
 Separation distances between fireworks discharges, ignitions, or explosions and
adjacent structures, railroads, roadways, airports, publicly owned or controlled places,
and places where hazardous materials are manufactured, used, or stored;
 Fireworks use on common areas of multi-tenant properties;
 The suspension of fireworks discharges, ignitions, or explosions during times of drought
or similar conditions;
 The proximity of fireworks discharges, ignitions, or explosions to children; and
 Any other similar matters.
The State Fire Marshal must file those rules with the Joint Committee on Agency Rule
Review by August 8, 2022. If filed on that date, the earliest possible effective date for the rules
would be October 23, 2022, though the State Fire Marshal may file the rules before August 8,
2022 (but not before February 7, 2022) for the rules to take effect earlier.6
Consumer-grade fireworks fee
To provide revenue for training programs and regulation of the fireworks industry, the
act imposes a fee on licensed sellers of consumer-grade fireworks. The fee is 4% of each
licensed retailer’s, manufacturer’s, and wholesaler’s gross receipts from the retail sale of
consumer-grade fireworks beginning May 18, 2022. The act excludes sales tax the retailer,
manufacturer, or wholesaler collects on behalf of the state or local governments from “gross
receipts.”
Licensed retailers (see “Fountain device retailer licenses,” below),
manufacturers, and wholesalers may separately or proportionally bill the fee to others, but
must themselves report and remit it to the State Fire Marshal annually, no later than October
23.
The fee’s proceeds are to be credited to the Fireworks Fee Receipts Fund, which the act
creates. The State Fire Marshal must use 7⁄8 (87.5%)of the money in the fund for firefighter
6R.C. 3743.451 and Section 3; R.C. 3743.54, not in the act; Filing Date Calculator, Joint Committee on
Agency Rule Review, available at https://www.jcarr.state.oh.us/filers/date-calculators.
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training programs. The remaining 1⁄8 must be used to pay the State Fire Marshal’s expenses in
administering the Fireworks Law.7
If the State Fire Marshal determines that a licensee has failed to timely report and remit
the fee, the State Fire Marshal may either:
 Order the licensee to report and remit the fee within a specified timeframe; or
 Revoke or deny renewal of the license, which requires the licensee to immediately cease
operations. It also prohibits licensed manufacturers and licensed wholesalers from
applying for new licenses for two years.
The State Fire Marshal is also permitted to adopt rules necessary to administer and enforce the
fee.8
Fountain device retailer licenses
The act creates a new license for retailers who wish to sell what are called fountain
devices. Und