EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)–Beginning Friday at noon, the sales and use of fireworks are banned in El Paso County until Sunday at 11:59 p.m.

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego issued the order on Monday after positive COVID-19 cases spiked in El Paso, however, he said the drought conditions also played a factor.

Some El Pasoans spent the final hours before the ban rushing to the stands for some fireworks even though they won’t be able to set them off in the County.

“There’s very few things we can do here in the El Paso area and one of them is shooting fireworks for the Fourth of July,” Janet Flores of Canutillo, Texas said.

Some local vendors disagreed with the order.

“I feel like our county officials don’t really care but maybe they forgot what it’s like to be a kid and be able to celebrate the Fourth of July I know I celebrate the Fourth of July because that’s my birthday and I always have and a lot of these kids look forward to the Fourth of July and fireworks,” Noel Baeza said.

However Judge Samaniego said it comes down to safety.

“When we have a holiday we deal with some tremendous peaks of positive cases because people gather together so as a difficult decision it was I think we’re going to look back and know that we saved lives”, Judge Samaniego said.