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However,there is much, much deeper damage done on these fireworks nights. Has anyone considered the following: Children, animals, veterans, and others with PTSD have NO ESCAPE during this war-like environment on July 1-4. Do you realize that we are trapped in our homes? We suffer through terror and fear inside our homes, and we stay for fear of our homes being burnt to the ground. There are many horses in Orange County and the surrounding cities. Understand that these are prey animals with highly developed hearing and sense of smell. Their protection from threat is to RUN AWAY. Where are they kept? In a stall or paddock, locked in. The terror these wonderful creatures are suffering is immeasurable. Trapped. Terrorized. Smelling fire, smoke, hearing explosions. The OC Fair Eq. Center is VERY NEAR all these explosions. I can only imagine what they go through on July 4. Our animals in our homes suffer the same terror. They shake, bark, cry. The loud explosions outside my door last night, had my poor dog barking and barking to try and "protect" us, or out of sheer terror. She does not run and hide. Both our hearts were pounding for hours. If you were in town, you experienced the ever-increasing crescendo of explosions. They start around 5 PM, they get louder, more frequent and brazen as the night wears on, until sometime around 10-11 PM there are immeasurable, constant explosions all around us that we cannot hear, our hearts are pounding, our dog is barking and crying, and we are trapped in our residence to "ride out this storm." This is no different than a war zone attack. This truly is a nightmare that must end. How many people got up at 5 or 6 AM to go to work this morning? Did they get rest? Did their children have their needs met by frazzled parents? Were those people on the roads able to focus on their drive to work or at their job today? The implications of this branch into many areas. It is clear that this situation IS OUT OF CONTROL in Santa Ana, and probably the surrounding communities, as well. Let me be clear: I do NOT place any blame on law enforcement for this problem. We love our SAPD and OC Sheriff. The policy for fireworks in Santa Ana(and Orange County in general) must change. We must now take a proactive stance bed a"illegal fireworks hotline" and ban all fireworks for good. We must revisit the Dec. 21 agenda item. Yes,there will be those who defy these laws. Yes, people will cry and complain about their charity revenues. But to be honest, the City of Santa Ana has not been strong enough to prevent this problem from spiraling out of control. There may have been ways to deal with this quickly and with much public outreach communicating zero tolerance and severe consequences. As examples: I recently witnessed the police parked on MacArthur with lights on a residence, using their loudspeaker to get someone to come out of an apartment. I have also heard them on occasion overhead announcing missing persons or suspects on the run. I heard NO such warnings last night. This could have been a deterrent very early on in the day?More community outreach in the weeks before July 4 may have helped. I thought last night about water buckets on helicopters. Funny, but feasible: first a warning,then splash..