CITY TERRACE — Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Douglas Barry was among those warning the public Monday not to try staging their own Independence Day fireworks shows as cities scale back their displays because of budget problems.

Barry reminded the public that if is illegal to bring so-called safe and sane fireworks into Los Angeles.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said he was "very concerned about the Fourth of July."

"We certainly don't want any fires started in areas where you know we have fire season year around'' because of the drought," Baca said at a news conference at the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Cecil R. Gehr Training Center in City Terrace.

Dr. Alexander Medina of the Grossman Burn Center said that "routinely, every year at the Grossman Burn Center, we see dozens of cases with burns related to fireworks injuries."

Cesar Martinez Cruz, who runs a safe and sane fireworks stand in Alhambra, where such pyrotechnics are legal, told ABC7 that "a lot of people are buying them for their families in back yards and stuff."

And a Knights of Columbus official said the stand run by Cruz provides much of the money that the organization regularly gives to charity each year.

The Montebello City Council decided to spend the $39,000 it normally spends on fireworks to help the city's hungry, the Los Angeles Times reported.