THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2021 Page 19 SPIRIT | FROM PAGE 6 health issues kept DiMare in the hospital recently, and a group of family members attended this year’s Memorial Day Ceremony and were among more than 400 who turned out to honor Saugus’s fallen heroes. “When I left the cemetery, we headed into Tufts hospital and told my father about the morning’s ceremony,” said DiMare’s daughter, Charlene Costa of Westford. “I thought he would have been disappointed because he wasn’t able to make it. He was very excited that the ceremony took place. He didn’t want it to be canceled. We told him all about the band held onto one of the bricks with her dad’s name inscribed on it, which will be among the next installed in the walkway of Saugus Veterans Memorial Park. “The best thing you can say about Charlie DiMare is he’s always involved and age doesn’t hold him back on anything,” Castinetti said in an interview. “It does not have to be just Bella and Charlie DiMare (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate) brick being honored in his name,” she said. Costa, who was joined by her mother, Bella, and husband, Stephen, made a video for her dad with her cell phone while her husDAV events. He’s for all veterans’ events. And he’s always there at Saugus veterans’ events. He’s always at Founders Day with us,” Castinetti said. “The Veterans Council does a booth and Charlie is always there. He is outgoing, friendly, selling raffle tickets and challenge coins – whatever he can do to help the veterans.” Vietnam War Veteran Richie Christopher, a former Saugus resident who lived in town for 42 years, called DiMare “a dedicated friend” and “the most loyal guy I know.” “He’s loyal not only to the disabled vets – but all the vets,” said Christopher, a 69-yearold Marine veteran. “He is the kind of guy who would go to a hospital to see a vet or get involved to help raise money for a veterans’ cause. If you needed him, he’s the type of guy who would show up if called. He carried the American flag to all our parades in the last three years,” Christopher said. “Charlie was always there for me. He’s been family to me and my family for over 50 years.” Statewide efforts begin to enforce fireworks regulations S tate Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey and State Police Colonel Christopher Mason recently announced that fireworks enforcement efforts have started. The State Police Bomb Squad is part of the Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit (F&EIU) assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, which has already started working with local police and fire departments to enforce the fireworks laws and intercept fireworks being brought into the state illegally. “It is illegal to bring fireworks into Massachusetts, even if they were legally purchased elsewhere,” said Ostroskey. In communities throughout the Commonwealth, there has been a significant rise in resident complaints regarding fireworks. The State Police Bomb Squad had a 63 percent increase in response to fireworks calls in 2020 over 2019. During the F&EIU 2020 fireworks enforcement operation, there were 47 criminal summonses issued over a four-day period. This year’s enforcement operation has already started and will last longer. “In addition to special enforcement efforts to intercept fireworks coming into Massachusetts, troopers and local police will seize illegal fireworks they find during routine traffic stops,” said Mason. “We don’t want a repeat of the huge increase in resident complaints we experienced last year.” “There will be supervised displays of fireworks this year unlike last year, so we encourage you to leave the fireworks to the professionals,” said Ostroskey. “Fireworks are illegal because they are dangerous. Fires started by fireworks in Massachusetts increased 180 percent in 2020 from 2019.” In the past decade, there have been 941 major fire and explosion incidents involving illegal fireworks reported to the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System. The incidents caused 12 civilian injuries, 42 fire service injuries and an estimated monetary loss of $2.1 million, which is high considering that most fireworks fires are outdoor brush fires. Additionally, 32 people were treated at Massachusetts emergency rooms for severe burn injuries from fireworks (burns covering more than five percent of the body) according to the Massachusetts Burn Injury Reporting System. This does not include visits to hospital emergency rooms for eye injuries, amputations, puncture wounds or smaller burns. Forty-one percent of fireworks-related burn injuries reported by hospitals to the Office of the State Fire Marshal in the last 10 years were to children under age 18; 26 percent were to children under age 10.
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