CELEBRATING THE FOURTH - Busting the boom trade - Authorities team up to stem the flow of illegal fireworks, largely from one Nevada town. They see a downward trend.

The 21-year-old pest control technician might be facing a fine of $250 and a bit of community service for setting off a handful of firecrackers on the sidewalk just as a patrolling arson investigator passed by in his car.

Cortez's alleged offense was small compared with a bust earlier in the day in Pomona that netted 2,000 pounds of illegal fireworks. But as with many another Californian who found himself in hot water with the law because of illegal fireworks Wednesday, Cortez's travails in all likelihood had their roots in Pahrump, Nev.

The town is laid out like flatbread in the convection oven of high desert 60 miles equidistant from Death Valley and Las Vegas. Its best-known export is the stuff that soured Cortez's holiday.

Pahrump, with a rapidly growing population of 37,000, is home to three fireworks supermarkets whose voluminous wares might well induce a state of ecstasy in any lover of pyrotechnics.

The shelves of the three stores -- Blackjack Fireworks, Phantom Fireworks and Area 51 -- are packed with everything from 50-cent poppers to hatbox- and suitcase-size items that sell for hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

Many of the fireworks have action comic book-type names, such as Neutron Bomb, Mineshell Mayhem, Major Combat, Ring of Fire and the 750-shot Assorted Missile Barrage. They feature items manufactured in China by, among others, Brothers Pyrotechnics, Shogun Pyrotechnics, Ninja and Alien, and some made in the U.S. by Long Island, N.Y.-based Grucci.

Large signs in front of the stores advertise sales by the case, and three-for-one and two-for-one specials.

License plates from California, where any fireworks that explode, fly or move on the ground are illegal, are familiar sights in the stores' parking lots.

The stores maintain an ambiguous policy toward selling to Californians, and to local residents, law enforcement officers say. The law in Nye County, where Pahrump is, requires that any fireworks purchased must be transported out of the county within 24 hours.