NEW YEAR'S EVE Revelers prepare for fireworks fun tonight

Sales of Phantom Fireworks for New Year's are a distant second to the Fourth of July.
For some, the New Year's tradition starts by wheeling a cart through the supermarket, looking for pork and sauerkraut for the family celebration.
For George Peterson, the shopping cart also is part of the tradition -- but for Peterson, the cart is wheeled through a fireworks superstore and filled to the brim with bursting charges, aerial repeaters, tubes, missile bases, mortars and Roman candles.
Peterson, of Beaver County, Pa., makes the fireworks run to Mahoning County at least twice a year. He can't buy fireworks in Pennsylvania, and his family would be crushed if he didn't put on the traditional pop-pop-and-boom show every Fourth of July and News Year's Eve.
Tonight, Peterson, about 20 nieces and nephews, other family members and friends will gather to watch the show. And they'll have plenty to see. On a recent evening, Peterson spent more than $450 at Phantom Fireworks in Beaver Township.
His co-worker, Joe Turner, and Turner's son, Andy, came along for the ride and offered opinions.
"You can go see fireworks, but you're not lighting the fuse," said Joe Turner. "That's what's fun."
A legal loophole
Peterson can legally do what Ohio residents cannot. He can buy fireworks, then take them home and set them off. Under Ohio law, fireworks can be purchased by residents but they must be taken outside the state to be set off.
There are exceptions -- sparklers, party poppers, smoke balls, snaps and snakes are all legal to set off in Ohio. "Those are old-lady fireworks," Peterson said.
But plenty of people buy them, said Bob Hartman, director of advertising for B.J. Alan Co., which owns Phantom Fireworks and fireworks.com. Phantom Fireworks has outlets in 12 states, Hartman said.
Sales far behind the Fourth
Sales spike for the Fourth of July, and New Year's Eve is a distant second.
Youngstown police don't worry a lot about New Year's fireworks, said Lt. William Centric.
"We don't go out of our way to look for them," Centric said. "We're too busy with all the gunshots, people firing off guns at midnight. That's what we get more of."
Shooting illegal fireworks is a misdemeanor offense, Centric said. It's a bit tricky, because police actually have to see someone shooting off the fireworks to charge them, he added.
"We give more verbal warnings than tickets," he said.
Safety first
Almost every year, a fireworks accident is reported, Centric said.
"People just don't use common sense," Centric said. "That's New Year's Eve ... You have people standing there holding on to a firecracker, and then you have people who drink all day and then decide to shoot off a gun."
Fireworks manufacturers keep trying to make their products safer, and they're succeeding, Hartman said. Fireworks injuries are down about 30 percent, but use is up about 118 percent.
Centric agreed.
"The people who are injured are usually the guys with the homemade fireworks," he said.
Peterson said he's never been hurt in the more than 20 years he's put on the elaborate show.
"It's totally safe," he said. "You read all the time about people getting hurt, but I don't know how. You just use common sense."