(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s law changed so you can now legally shoot off fireworks anywhere in the state on July 3rd and 4th this year. Kim Sandtoe operates one of two permanent Jakes Fireworks buildings in central Iowa and says they’ve already had people calling to ask about it. “We’ve seen an increased interest in fireworks products. People that are new to new to fireworks, as well as those that have maybe bought more conservative items previously and are now looking to try some things they haven’t tried in the past,” she says. Sandtoe runs the Urbandale operations, and estimates sales are up ten to 15 percent across their two buildings and 60 tents. Before this year’s change cities and counties were able to put restrictions on fireworks, and many banned them altogether. Sandtoe says to her it seems like the competition has leveled off since fireworks became legal to sell again in 2017.

“You know when it first became legal, there was a huge uptick in the number of tents. We’ve seen over the last several years, that’s kind of dwindled a little bit,” she says. She says people realized that you need to be able to buy in quantity to get better prices on fireworks, and some didn’t have that capacity. Sandtoe says you also have to plan ahead and buy in advance to have enough stock. “That’s a big thing for us, we place our orders a year in advance so all the tariffs and such haven’t really impacted us this year, because our orders were all in and a lot of our product was in before the first of the year,” Sandtoe says. She says There are hundreds of options for those who want to buy fireworks.

“The Big 500 gram cakes, which is what most people consider fireworks, where you’re lighting them off and multiple things happen. I’ve got almost 100 skews of just those items alone,” Sandtoe says. “We’ve got stuff for everybody. We’ve got smokes and sparklers and snakes and little spinners, fountains for those people that want to air a little bit more conservatively. The fountains are kind of the showers of sparks. They only go at most ten to 14 feet in the air, so those are great for neighborhood environments.”

The law now allows you to shoot off fireworks on July 3rd from 9 a-m until 10 p-m, and July 4th from 9 a-m until 11 p-m.