Watson owns Olympus Fireworks and has 45 tents scattered around Utah, trying to sell the half-million dollars worth of fireworks he ordered and had shipped in last year.

Sales stink this year, Watson said. His small, family-owned business is dying on the vine.

Watson contacted the Standard-Examiner on Friday after a story Thursday detailed extensive restrictions on the use of fireworks around Top of Utah. Fireworks have been banned in all unincorporated areas of the state since late June. Most cities have placed limits on what can be used and designated areas off-limits to all fireworks.

But, Watson said, it has been raining in July. The fire danger has to have lessened.

“I’m at 25 percent (in sales) of what I was last year and I know we’re all concerned about fires, but now the rains have come and we’re back to a normal summer.”

He said media warnings about fire danger have scared people against buying fireworks — even to use in safe places. He said he’s had workers verbally assaulted for selling fireworks.

Northview Fire Marshal Ted Black is one of several fire marshals and officials who told the Standard-Examiner on Tuesday that they would be happy if nobody bought any fireworks.

Black said others have asked him if recent rains have made fireworks safer.

He said the problem is that the dry weather has already killed much of the grass and weeds in unincorporated areas, and that grass is still dead and remains highly flammable.

Watson said he has sold fireworks for four years in Utah, but this year he expanded his operation by doubling the number of tents he set up and ordering more product.

He had to start placing orders for fireworks in China last year, and has spent the whole year finding locations for sales tents, hiring workers and doing myriad other things a small business has to do.

“And then to have the weather, to have the whole state in an uproar ..,” he said.

He said he could lose big if sales don’t increase. He figures he’s got $500,000 invested in inventory, another $100,000 in tents and $25,000 for storage units to hold the fireworks when they aren’t being sold. Then there’s the costs of hiring workers.

“There is a massive amount of investment that exceeds just product cost,” he said.

“I am supportive of any restrictions on areas with any homes that border vegetation, the unincorporated areas,” he said, but residential areas, with watered lawns and city trees around, ought to be different.

“I don’t know about you, but my grass is as green as it was a month ago,” he said.

People using fireworks in safe areas, and using them carefully, won’t cause any fires, he said.

“That’s the message I wanted to get out, that you’re not going get a ticket for lighting sparklers in your yard.”