The Maine Agenda › Live in Maine
Fireworks Rules by Town in Greater Portland, Maine
Go to the Office of the State Fire Marshal's website right now, open the page listing every municipal fireworks ordinance in Maine, and click Cumberland. You get a scanned copy of the town's ordinance saying you may set off consumer fireworks on July 3, July 4, July 5, December 31 and January 1, starting at 9:00 a.m. each day.
Four of those five days are no longer legal in Cumberland. None of them start at 9:00 a.m.
Cumberland amended its ordinance on February 10, 2025. The current law allows exactly two windows: July 4 from 4:00 p.m. to midnight, and December 31 from 4:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on January 1. July 3, July 5 and January 1 are gone. A resident who does precisely what the state's own file says commits a civil violation carrying a flat $200 fine.
That is the shape of this entire subject. Maine legalized consumer fireworks statewide effective January 1, 2012, every retailer's advertising says so, and then eleven towns within 25 minutes of Portland wrote eleven different rules on top of it. The summaries you will find, including the ones published by the towns themselves, are not reliable. We read every ordinance.
The state layer, which applies before any town rule
Consumer fireworks became legal under 8 M.R.S. section 223-A. Three parts of that statute matter to a normal person.
Hours. Consumer fireworks may be used between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., extended to 12:30 a.m. the following day on July 4, on December 31, and on the weekends immediately before and after each of those dates. Violating the use rules is a civil violation carrying a fine of $50 to $500 plus court costs.
Location. You may use them only on your own property, or on property whose owner has consented. There is no public land exception anywhere in the statute.
Age. Twenty-one, not eighteen. A person under 21 may not purchase, use or possess consumer fireworks, and the fine runs $200 to $400, rising to $300 to $600 for a repeat. Handing them to someone under 21 is a Class D crime with a minimum $500 fine on top of any jail exposure.
And a category most people get wrong: sky rockets, bottle rockets, missile-type rockets, helicopters and aerial spinners are excluded from the definition of consumer fireworks in section 221-A. They were never legalized. They remain plain fireworks under section 222, where mere possession is a civil violation, and possession of more than $100 worth is a Class E crime. Bottle rockets are the classic example. They are illegal in every town on this page, in every month of the year.
Section 223-A also lets any municipality prohibit or restrict the sale or use of consumer fireworks, and requires a town that does so to file a copy with the Fire Marshal within 60 days of adoption. At the end of 2025 the Fire Marshal had 119 such ordinances on file statewide. Filing, as Cumberland demonstrates, is not the same as keeping the file current.
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Six towns ban them outright
Portland, South Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth, Yarmouth and Freeport prohibit both the sale and the use of consumer fireworks. Not restricted hours. Banned.
Portland's is section 17-32(b) of Chapter 17, adopted September 19, 2011: "No person shall use, possess with the intent to use, sell, possess with the intent to sell or offer for sale consumer fireworks in the City of Portland." The only exception is a display permit under 8 M.R.S. section 227-A. Using them draws $200 to $400 plus costs, and selling them draws a minimum of $500. South Portland and Cape Elizabeth adopted nearly identical language within weeks.
The penalties diverge more than the prohibitions do. Freeport's is the one worth knowing about: $100 to $2,500 per day, plus attorney's fees and costs. Freeport also bars fireworks within fifty feet of any public way, which on most Freeport streets means the front yard is out. Yarmouth runs a much gentler $50 to $200 per violation, and its rule is tucked inside the Fire Ordinance rather than a standalone fireworks chapter. Falmouth's ordinance prints no dollar figure at all, pointing instead to the town's general penalty section and making each day a separate offense. South Portland moved its amounts out of the ordinance and into the Master Fee Schedule, so anyone quoting a South Portland fine should be reading the fee schedule, not Chapter 8.
Yarmouth is also the only one of the six that writes a sparkler exemption into its own text, excluding sparklers without magnesium chlorates or perchlorates from the definition.
Five towns allow them, on terms
| Town | When you may use them | Permit | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cumberland | July 4, 4 p.m. to midnight; Dec 31, 4 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. | No | $200 flat |
| Gorham | July 3, July 4, Dec 31, Jan 1, and every Saturday | Yes | $200 to $500 plus fees |
| Windham | July 3, July 4, Dec 31, Jan 1 | Yes | $200 to $400; $300 to $600 repeat |
| Westbrook | July 4, July 5, Dec 31 | Yes | Set by the city fine schedule |
| Scarborough | July 3, July 4, Dec 31, Jan 1, one road only | Notification | $100 to $500 per day |
Three of those five require a permit from the fire department before you light anything, which is the single most widely ignored requirement in this region. Gorham, Windham and Westbrook all say so plainly in their ordinances, and all three refuse to issue a permit on any day rated Fire Danger Class 3, 4 or 5. If the woods are dry on July 4, the legal answer in those towns is no.
Gorham has the most permissive clause in Greater Portland and almost nobody knows it exists. Chapter 142, section 142-5B lists the usual holiday windows and then adds a fifth item: "Every Saturday beginning at 12:00 p.m. (noon) and ending at 10:00 p.m." Fifty-two Saturdays a year, with a permit, 150 feet from any building. We read it twice because we did not believe it the first time.
Scarborough went the other way in 2021. Its ordinance now reads that in all of Scarborough except the ocean side of Spurwink Road, from the Black Point Road intersection to the Cape Elizabeth line, fireworks are prohibited. Even in that corridor you must file a Notification of Intent with the fire department and stay inside four calendar days. The fine is $100 to $500, it accrues per day, and the property owner is liable alongside the person who lit the fuse. Scarborough does not ban sale, and its own section VIII assumes retailers operate in town.
Westbrook is stricter than its neighbors in a way that catches people out. Consent from a property owner must be in writing. Public streets and parks are off limits entirely. And the setback is twenty feet from any building, against 150 feet in Gorham and Windham.
Sale, incidentally, is prohibited in seven of the eleven towns. Cumberland bans selling while permitting limited use, which is a combination most people find surprising until they read it.
The second wrong government document
Cumberland's stale file at the state is one failure. Here is the other, and it runs in the opposite direction.
Windham's police department publishes a fireworks safety notice listing the town's four legal windows. For December 31 it says 12:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. The ordinance, Chapter 76, section 76-3A(3), says December 31 from noon to 12:30 a.m. the following day. The town's own page understates the legal window by ninety minutes.
Nobody gets fined for following that one, which is why it has presumably sat there unnoticed. But taken together the two errors make the same point. One official document tells Cumberland residents they have five days when they have two, and following it costs $200. Another tells Windham residents they have to stop ninety minutes before the law says they do. Both were published by the government that wrote the rule. Neither is a substitute for the ordinance.
If you want the reliable version, the ordinance itself is almost always one search away on the town's website or on eCode360, and it is short. Cumberland's whole chapter is two sections.
What we would actually do
If you live in the six ban towns, drive to a town that allows them and get permission from a property owner there, or go watch a permitted display instead. The public July 4 fireworks around Portland are professionally shot under section 227-A permits and cost you nothing.
If you live in Gorham, Windham or Westbrook, get the permit. It is the same fire department counter that issues open burning permits, it is free or close to it, and it is the difference between a legal evening and a $200 minimum.
And whatever town you are in, assume your neighbors will call. Fireworks complaints in this region are usually logged as noise, and the quiet hours rules vary as sharply from town to town as the fireworks rules do. A legal firework at a prohibited hour is still a problem.
FAQ
Are consumer fireworks legal in Portland, Maine?
No. Portland City Code section 17-32(b) prohibits using, selling, possessing with intent to use, and possessing with intent to sell consumer fireworks anywhere in the city, adopted September 19, 2011. The only exception is a permitted public display under 8 M.R.S. section 227-A. Fines run $200 to $400 for use and start at $500 for sale.
Which Greater Portland towns allow fireworks?
Five: Cumberland, Gorham, Windham, Westbrook and Scarborough, each on its own terms. Gorham, Windham and Westbrook require a fire department permit. Scarborough restricts use to a single stretch of Spurwink Road with a filed Notification of Intent. Cumberland allows two windows a year and requires no permit. The other six towns in this region, Portland, South Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth, Yarmouth and Freeport, prohibit them outright.
What time can you set off fireworks in Maine?
Under 8 M.R.S. section 223-A(8), from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., extended to 12:30 a.m. the following day on July 4, on December 31, and on the weekends immediately before and after each. Town ordinances routinely narrow this, so the state hours are a ceiling and not a permission. Cumberland, for example, does not allow anything before 4:00 p.m.
Are bottle rockets legal in Maine?
No. Sky rockets, bottle rockets, missile-type rockets, helicopters and aerial spinners are all excluded from the definition of consumer fireworks in 8 M.R.S. section 221-A, which means the 2012 legalization never covered them. They remain fireworks under section 222, where possession is a civil violation and possession of more than $100 worth is a Class E crime.
Do I need a permit for fireworks in Maine?
Not under state law, but yes in three Greater Portland towns. Gorham, Windham and Westbrook each require a permit from the fire department before any consumer fireworks are used, and none of the three will issue one on a day rated Fire Danger Class 3, 4 or 5. Scarborough requires a Notification of Intent rather than a permit.
How old do you have to be to buy fireworks in Maine?
Twenty-one. A person under 21 may not purchase, use or possess consumer fireworks, and faces a $200 to $400 fine. Furnishing them to someone under 21 is a Class D crime carrying a minimum $500 fine. Maine also requires every fireworks advertisement to carry the line telling buyers to check with their local fire department, precisely because the state answer and the town answer so often differ.
Where can you buy fireworks near Portland, Maine?
Not in most of this region. Seven of the eleven towns here prohibit sale, and a state retail license costs $5,000 to obtain and $1,500 a year to renew, which keeps the number of stores small. The Fire Marshal reported sixteen licensed and operating retail stores in the entire state in 2025, down from a peak of twenty-four in 2017. The state does not publish a list of them by name or town.
Sources and dates
Every town rule above was read against that town's own current code or ordinance PDF on August 12, 2026, not against a summary. State law was read at the Legislature's own server. The retail and ordinance-count figures come from the Office of the State Fire Marshal's report to the Legislature dated February 24, 2026, covering 2025.
Two ordinances in this region have changed since the state's copies were filed, so the dates worth watching are Cumberland's, amended February 10, 2025, and Scarborough's, amended April 21, 2021. We will re-read all eleven before July 2027.