PORTLAND — The city is poised to be one of the first communities in Maine to enact a prohibition on the purchase and use of fireworks.

The move is in response to the Legislature’s legalization of the sale and use of consumer fireworks.

After only five minutes of discussion Tuesday evening, the City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted 2-0, with Councilor John Coyne absent, to direct city staff to draft a fireworks ban for the full council’s consideration.

Portland Fire Chief Fred LaMontagne spoke in favor of the ban, citing the city’s population density and old housing stock.

“We really have grave concerns around (fireworks’) ability not only to impact our housing stock and start fires, but also our concern around personal injury,” LaMontagne said.

Portland is no stranger to fireworks mishaps.

The Great Fire of Portland in 1866 was caused by an errant firecracker on the Fourth of July, the first after the end of the Civil War.

The fire burned a third of the Old Port, from Commercial and Maple streets to North Street, killed two people, displaced 12,000 and caused $12 million damage, according to the Maine Historical Society.

Even professional pyrotechnicians in recent years have had their problems.

Last year, a fireworks shell exploded close to a fireworks storage trailer on the Eastern Promenade, starting a small fire that resulted in an unscheduled encore of fireworks bursting into the sky after the official show was over.

City officials fear fires and injuries will be more common after the state’s new law takes effect Jan. 1, 2012.

The state law would allow the sale and use of fireworks by people over the age of 21. Ground-based fireworks containing 50 milligrams or less of explosive materials, and aerial fireworks containing 130 milligrams or less would be legal. “Missile-type rockets,” helicopters, aerial spinners, and sky and bottle rockets would not be allowed.

Use of fireworks will be allowed between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m., and until 12:30 a.m. on July 4, Dec. 31 and weekends before and after those dates.

But the state law also allows municipalities to enact their own bans.

City officials are also concerned that general nuisance complaints about neighborhood firecrackers around the Fourth of July will become everyday occurrences.

Chester Street resident Helen Andrews spoke in support of the ban. She claimed someone was either lighting firecrackers or having target practice this week in East Deering.

“We hear it all the time on Veranda Street,” she said.

Councilor David Marshall, who proposed the ban, said he has heard complaints from Parkside residents who must contend with fireworks before and after the Fourth of July — with the statewide prohibition in place.

“You certainly have issues around public safety, but also trying to maintain the peace,” Marshall said.

Mary Costigan, a city attorney, said a draft of the ban will be presented to the full council in September.