It’s been four years since Maine lifted its ban on people launching explosive, sometimes colorful projectiles in their backyards, and plenty of Mainers are still embracing that freedom.

Across the state, amateur pyrotechnicians will spend millions of dollars on consumer fireworks this June and July, the time of year when retailers make the vast majority of their annual revenue.

And although the booming sales of the first year of consumer fireworks legalization in Maine subsided in subsequent years, it’s uncertain whether more recent sales are a barometer for what to expect in the future or whether sales will continue to decline as the newness wanes.

For Holly and Scott Temple, a Winthrop couple shopping Wednesday afternoon at Pyro City in Manchester, fireworks aren’t just a novelty. They’ve been shooting off fireworks every Friday night for the past month. They already had purchased fireworks for the Fourth of July weekend but were back Wednesday for another haul.

“We’re still like little kids in a candy store,” said Scott Temple, 40.

They said they plan their shows out beforehand, making sure to save the biggest and tallest blasts for the finale. On the Fourth of July, they’ll be putting on a show at Holly Temple’s uncle’s camp on Cobbossee Lake in Winthrop.

“It’s a lot of fun. We like doing it,” said Holly Temple, 35.

In 2012, the year the state ended its ban on the use and sale of consumer fireworks, retailers sold $7.1 million worth of fireworks, according to sales tax revenue figures from Maine Revenue Services. Although that year’s sales didn’t include January and February, a small portion of fireworks sales occur in those months.

Sales dropped about 10 percent to $6.36 million in 2013, but mostly flattened out last year, dropping only 1.5 percent and totaling $6.27 million. Fireworks sales last June and July, which make up about two-thirds of overall sales in Maine, actually increased slightly over June and July in 2013.

Steve Marson, who owns Pyro City in Manchester, along with stores in Edgecomb, Ellsworth, Presque Isle, Windham and Winslow, said last week that sales at his six stores were down about 7 percent, but he expected a strong finish for this Fourth of July season.

Rain in the middle of the week and a weekend forecast calling for plenty of sun with highs approaching 80 degrees make for ideal conditions for consumer fireworks, Marson said. Unless people are shooting the fireworks off over lakes, they’re more hesitant to use them when it’s dry out, he said.

“The guy that lives in the back field is not going to go and light a bunch of fireworks off if he’s got dry conditions,” Marson said.

When consumer fireworks were legalized in 2012 in Maine, Marson’s stores, some of the first to open, saw big sales, but sales seem to have stabilized, he said. There are now 24 fireworks stores in Maine, and Marson thinks the market could be oversaturated.

“I don’t know how all of these little places can survive without a main means of income,” Marson said. “Everybody’s going to make money on July Fourth. The next thing is, can you stay open 12 months a year and make money?”

Marson also owns Central Maine Pyrotechnics, a fireworks company that puts on hundreds of shows a year in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont.

Since being legalized in 2012, consumer fireworks sales have netted the state more than $1 million in sales tax revenue, according to state revenue services. Last year, Maine collected around $321,000 in revenue from consumer fireworks sales.

An owner of another central Maine fireworks retailer, Patriot Fireworks in Monmouth and Livermore, expects his sales to be up slightly this year.

Jay Blais said the first year was big for his stores, but sales dropped after that. This year looks better, he said, guessing it might be a result of an improving economy and lower gas prices.

Across the country, estimated sales of consumer fireworks have more than doubled over the last decade and a half, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association. In the last five years, estimated sales increased from $636 million to $695 million in 2014, according to the association, which gathers self-reported sales data from members.

The group is expecting record-breaking sales of around $725 million this year, thanks to New York and Georgia relaxing their consumer fireworks restrictions, said Julie L. Heckman, executive director of the organization.

On Wednesday afternoon, nearly 239 years after the American colonies declared their independence from the British Empire, Patrick Caron, of Lewiston, was eying rolls of 8,000 Black Cat firecrackers at Patriot Fireworks on U.S. Route 202 in Monmouth. Caron, 36, said he already stocked up for his Fourth of July show but was still looking for more.

He said he usually puts on a fireworks show with friends and family every year on the holiday. This year he had bought four boxes of the Megabanger’s Exterminator 24-shell pack, shooting a few shells off when he got it home.

“I just like the aerials,” Caron said. “The louder, the bigger, the better.”

Paul Koenig — 621-5663

pkoenig@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @pdkoenig

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