ATLANTA — Lameka Watley's shelves were close to empty Monday afternoon, hours prior to Fourth of July fireworks shows across the nation. When she arrived to her TNT Fireworks shop at the Toco Hills Shopping Center, she said there was already a line waiting for her.
"People were like, 'We’re waiting on you to open up!' Then I was busy for two hours straight. It has been nonstop. It’s hard to kind of eat lunch, do anything, creep a drink of water. It has been awesome. The customers have been awesome."
11Alive interviewed her on Friday about fireworks sales, and she said since then, sales have gone up by more than 50%.
One of her customers, included Sari Joel.
"They had this really nice $60 bundle, I bought that, I bought some artillery shells and these sparklers," she said. "We’ll just be in our front yard, celebrating with some neighbors and some kids on the block."
Field Willingham was also there with his son.
"We'll probably fire these up at our cul-de-sac," he said. "Our neighbors usually come out when they hear them going off so the neighborhood will probably stand around."
Everyone 11Alive interviewed was celebrating a different way, but all had the same agenda at the end of the night: watch a fireworks display.
Jeffrey Hunter was going to do so from his lawn chair at the Stars and Stripes event in Sandy Springs.
"It's nice! After two years of being indoors, this is great," he said. "Just being here among people, enjoying the sights, the sounds, good food, and fireworks. It's good to be around people... just living."
Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul was able to light the first firework.
"There’s still this sense of we want to get out, we want to enjoy life, come together and celebrate – it’s been a great event for us," he said.
Paul added they expected a record-high of 8,000 people at City Springs Monday. It is the second year the event is held in the "heart" of Sandy Springs, as prior to that it was held at the so-called King and Queen building.
"It’s a great celebration here in Sandy Springs. We say happy birthday to America and celebrate what it is to be an American at this time of the year," he added.
But before folks who lit fireworks on America's birthday go to bed, Watley wants people to remember how to properly dispose of them.
"Things do happen even when people don’t think things happen. These fireworks, they do come back alive for some reason," she explained. "After you do your fireworks, leave them in the middle of the street, get a water hose, wet them down."
As for throwing them out, she advises to wait until the next day to put them in the trash.
"I would say wait until the next morning just to be safe because it’s gonna be dark [Monday night], so you won’t be able to tell what got wet and what didn’t get wet so you want to be safe.”
Cobb County Fire told 11Alive that whoever ignites the fireworks is responsible for clean-up, and added to always keep a bucket of water or hose within reach.
Watley agreed, and suggested wetting the surroundings before lighting any firework.
"Wet the grass the evening before... as soon as it starts cooling off, wet your grass on the whole area you’re going to be lighting fireworks. Even wet your street if you can. Wet your trees, the front of the house that way if any ashes or any small flames hit your grass, it’s already damp – it’s not going to cause any fire," she said.