AURORA | Fourth of July last year was a blast for the folks at Pop, Boom, Bang Fireworks.

The stand at East Florida Avenue and Parker Road essentially cleared its shelves by midday on the holiday. That meant all the Ratta-Tat-Tat Fountains, Jumbo Crackling Ground Blooms and Squiggly Star firecrackers were sold out before the sun set on the Fourth.

Owner Steve Deden, who runs the stand with his wife, Jess, said he spent that morning scrambling to get more product to no avail.

“Last year we had a complete sell-out,” he said last week. “We couldn’t get enough stuff.”

While fireworks — even the ones you can legally buy at Deden’s shop just across the city line in unincorporated Arapahoe County — are illegal in the city of Aurora, they aren’t illegal in unincorporated Arapahoe County. And this year, just as it was last year, the fireworks that Deden sells are legal in Centennial, too.

With fewer restrictions, Deden said he foresees 2016 being just as busy as 2015.

“We’re definitely expecting to see that again this year,” he said. “There’s gonna be a shortage of fireworks.”

Deden’s stand is one of nine licensed throughout unincorporated Arapahoe County. Just down the block near Parker and East Jewell Avenue his father has another stand, and others dot the eastern reaches of Smoky Hill Road.

The stands point to an odd quirk in Colorado’s laws. While you can pull up to Deden’s stand and drop a few bucks on fireworks — state law generally allows fireworks as long as they don’t explode or shoot projectiles into the air — you’re breaking the law if you cruise east on Florida and cross the Aurora city line.

Aurora fire Lt. Lore Bridges said that even simple possession of fireworks in Aurora is illegal. The city’s fine for lighting fireworks starts at $250 and can climb to $2,500.

Bridges said that whether a July 4 reveler is lighting off the sorts of fountains they can buy in unincorporated Arapahoe County or a pack of bottle rockets they bought in Wyoming, they face the same fines.

Over the holiday weekend firefighters will be paired with police officers, patrolling the city looking for people lighting off fireworks, she said.

Usually, those interactions are pretty friendly, Bridges said, but when officers come across someone who plopped down a lot of cash for fireworks in Wyoming, they often aren’t thrilled to have their investment taken.

Other times, she said, officers come across people confused by the fact that they bought fireworks legally at a stand a few blocks from where they were getting a ticket.

“It is confusing,” she said. “We tell them ‘You didn’t actually buy them in Aurora if you bought them.’”

While some folks take what seem like reasonable precautions — a garden hose at the ready, a bucket of water for spent fireworks — Bridges said those people will get a ticket if they get caught, too.

“It’s still illegal,” she said. “Illegal is illegal.”

The department has issued anywhere between 25 and more than 60 citations over the July 4 weekend in recent years, according to city statistics.

At Pop, Boom, Bang, Deden said he encourages people to always be safe when they use his product.

That means never light fireworks under a tree or a car, always have a hose and bucket handy and avoid using a fire extinguisher. The powder in many extinguishers can react with fireworks, he said, and even his stand is required to have a fire extinguisher on hand equipped with water, not powder.

And definitely don’t try to modify your fireworks, he said.

“You start trying to modify it in your own way, you are taking a risk,” he said.

As for what’s gonna be popular this year, Deden said the Black Cat Ground Mines — a silver ball that turns into a big crackling ball of fire when lit — are going to be big in 2016.

Jess Deden said a couple of smoke bombs that work with no lighter — including a grenade that erupts in smoke when you pull the string — are gonna be popular, too.

“Kids have been asking for this for years,” she said of the grenades.

Other items might sell well, but even the Dedens can’t explain why.

“We have some other new stuff,” Steve said, pointing at a green alien head fountain and laughing. “I don’t really know anything about it, but with a face like that.”