The North Carolina State Senate voted on a bill allowing NC State to shoot fireworks at events without a permit from the city of Raleigh.

The bill, House Bill 55, allows NC State to operate its own fireworks and pyrotechnics on campus under the supervision of the fire marshal. 

“House Bill 55 clarifies the process we go through when we seek permits,” said Mick Kulikowski, the assistant director for news and national media coordinator at NC State. 

The North Carolina House of Representatives unanimously voted to pass the bill last week.

“We use fireworks mainly for home football games,” Kulikowski said. “This would simply clear it with the State fire marshal’s office.”

Cary Republican Rep. Nelson Dollar is a sponsor of the bill.

Kulikowski said other public institutions in North Carolina have this in place for fireworks at football games.

“It just eliminates one of the permitting steps along the way for these pyrotechnic displays,” Dollar said in an interview with The News & Observer.  “We’re simply extending to NC State the same thing that’s been in place and working just fine over at UNC-Chapel Hill.” 

Both UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem already have this freedom with fireworks under state law. Passing the bill will extend the same privileges to NC State.