No changes are expected to be made to Port Moody's fireworks regulations before Halloween, the city's mayor said yesterday.

Port Moody came under fire last year as it was the only Tri-City municipality to allow fireworks to be sold Oct. 31 and set off without a permit.

Discussion ensued between Tri-City's three fire chiefs to bring the cities' policies in line but "it seems as though it'll be status quo this year," PoMo Fire Chief Jeff Lambert said.

"Whatever is in place is in place," Mayor Joe Trasolini said, "and I don't see anything on the agenda that would [change] that."

In May, the Lower Mainland Municipal Association, which represents cities and towns in the region as far away as Hope and Lillooet, voted to back a blanket regional ban on the sale of fireworks except for licensed displays.

The motion carries no weight ¡ª it will still be up to holdout cities as to whether they will pass their own bans and end the patchwork quilt of regulations that now exists.

In the Tri-Cities:

• Port Coquitlam bans the sale of fireworks but allows residents to take out a permit to shoot them off on Halloween;

• In Coquitlam, you can't buy fireworks but you can set them off provided you have a permit and are on a property where the audience can be at least 20 feet back for ground-level explosives and 30 feet back for aerial light shows. (The regulation essentially eliminates all single-family lots.) Also, Coquitlam residents applying for permits must bring in a sketch of their lot to prove they have enough space for a fireworks event.

• In Port Moody, you can buy fireworks and set them off on Halloween without a permit but noisy fireworks have to be purchased as part of a family pack.

Fireworks abuse by hooligans is blamed for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property damage each year around B.C. and firework-related accidents are the cause of serious injuries.