MT JULIET, Tenn. (WTVF) — Fourth of July festivities are just one week away, but the abnormally dry conditions that have hit Tennessee during the last couple of weeks are posing a threat to traditional fireworks displays this year.
The Portland Fire Chief announced Monday that he's banning fireworks in the city until further notice, and officials in Mount Juliet are debating whether they should do the same.
Sunday night's rainfall behaved strangely over the dry grounds of Mt. Juliet.
"Just before it got to Hendersonville and to Gallatin it broke apart. It encompassed Mt. Juliet and then reformed together south, right at the Speedway track. They got a nice — they got a very nice shower," said Mt. Juliet Fire Department Chief Jamie Luffman.
But none of that nice shower arrived in the Luffman's eagerly awaiting city.
In fact, where it did rain, it poured.
"We are under a rain delay; we are going to wait it out here in Nashville," the Speedway announced to gathered fans Sunday night.
But Mt. Juliet, just a few miles away, didn't get that rain.
"If we'd have had something like that here, the narrative would be way different," Luffman said.
This means Fire Chief Jamie Luffman may be on the cusp of potentially having to deliver some bad news.
"We don't want to do that; I told my wife this morning, I said, 'I do not want to be the Grinch who stole Independence Day,'" Luffman said.
But if the city doesn't get some kind of substantial rainfall between now and the Fourth of July, Luffman said he'll likely have to ban setting off fireworks for Independence Day — including scheduled fireworks shows, which could spark big, fast-spreading fires with everything so dry.
"You can feel this breeze right now, it would blow across this field in a matter of seconds," Luffman said.
Making dangers worse is all the new development in Mt. Juliet.
"Two or three years ago, what might have been a field fire is now going to be in a neighborhood," said Luffman.
Tanica Harwell with Southern Boom Fireworks said she's hoping for some rain this week too, while urging anyone setting off fireworks anywhere to be careful.
"We just try to precaution everybody, just, to take precautions as they're shooting off their fireworks; pay attention to the wind, pay attention to the air quality that you've got going and where you're shooting them," Harwell said.
It's advice that the fire chief said is good to follow, hoping he doesn't have to delay when you can follow it.
"Really it's just making sure that they get to enjoy the things that they want to enjoy," Luffman said.
