PROVIDENCE — The skies over Providence will be dark this Fourth of July.

The capital city has called off its fireworks display after state fire officials said the fireworks are launched too close to the buildings of Smith Hill, some of which have suffered burns from fireworks in the last few years.

Providence tried to find an alternate site, but couldn’t relocate in time.

“We were trying to — we turned over every rock we possibly could,” said Lynne McCormack, director of Arts, Culture and Tourism for Providence.

Providence has held a Fourth of July fireworks display over the State House since 2005, and shoots them off for New Year’s as well. It’s now unlikely that Providence will ever launch fireworks from the State House area again, but city officials hope to rekindle the tradition next July from a barge in the Providence River.

The state fire marshal’s office has allowed the fireworks displays in the area in recent years, but complaints by the owners of a nearby office building, coupled with the discovery of burns on the rooftop of the state medical examiner’s office on Orms Street, prompted the fire marshal’s office to return and remeasure whether the fireworks were far enough from buildings. They were not.

Professional fireworks are measured by the diameter of the shell they are fired in. State fire codes require a drop zone around the launcher of 70 feet per inch of shell size from buildings or sensitive sites like highways, according to fire marshal designee LeRoy Rose.

Providence’s displays have traditionally fired off four-inch and five-inch shells for maximum visibility. These require a minimum 280-foot drop zone all around the launcher, according to Providence Fire Chief George S. Farrell.

The state-owned parking lot that the city uses for its displays, along State Street, lies too close to several buildings, a highway, and train tracks. Every which way they tried to move the launchers around that lot, they still found themselves too close to something valuable.

“[Route] 95 is right there. You have the One State Street, you have the medical examiner’s office, you have the train tracks,” Rose said. “The staff of this office just do not feel comfortable allowing it.”

Smaller fireworks were considered, then quickly rejected when planners realized that the bursts wouldn’t rise far enough above the State House.

“It wouldn’t get high enough to even see it from downtown,” McCormack said.

That set city and state officials scrambling to find another location.

But with Capital Center now heavily developed, and Station Park lying atop heavily regulated Amtrak rails, no other sites in downtown Providence meet the setback requirements — except the North Burial Ground, which McCormack said was quickly ruled out as inappropriate.

Roger Williams Park was a possibility, but it is far from the downtown. The $25,000 fireworks display is paid for by the Providence Tourism Council, which is funded from the revenue gleaned by a 1-percent local tax on hotel stays. The Tourism Council felt that the fireworks had to be visible from the downtown in order to justify the cost.

The best option seemed to be a barge in the Providence River. The bursts would be visible from around the city, and the water provides plenty of buffer space.

But there were several problems. The proximity to the sensitive industrial port operations at the nearby Port of Providence means that any show needs the Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security to sign off. That wasn’t possible to secure on an abbreviated schedule.

A barge show would also be twice as expensive as a land show, costing $50,000.

Several weeks ago, Providence decided not to hold a show.

“Unfortunately, this year we’re going to go dark. It’s incredibly disappointing to our office, it’s disappointing to the mayor’s office, it’s disappointing all over the place,” McCormack said.

Problems have loomed over the past several State House fireworks displays. On several displays, the owners of One State Street said that debris landed on the adjacent building, according to Governor Carcieri’s chief of communications, John Robitaille.

The building owners, the Saunders Hotel Group out of Boston, filed an insurance claim to recover damages from the 2006 fireworks and later sought to block the New Year’s Eve fireworks display last year. An agreement was reached that allowed fireworks as long as there were an increased level of fire safety personnel and equipment on hand, according to Robitaille.

It was later discovered that the roof of the medical examiner’s office at 48 Orms St., had burn damage. That, McCormack said, was what touched off significant review.

“We’re very lucky we didn’t have a problem in the past, based on what they’re saying,” McCormack said.

It’s unclear whether the city will continue with the New Year’s Eve fireworks in the future from the Providence River. One thing is clear: for large-scale displays, the State House area is a no-go.

“We won’t have fireworks at the State House, of this size, ever again,” McCormack said.

The city will still hold a free concert by Carlos De Leon in Waterplace Park on the Fourth.

Providence held fireworks displays at Roger Williams Park, and on a few occasions downtown, on July 4 for many years, until the city stopped Independence Day fireworks displays in the mid 1990s. Independence Day fireworks were launched off India Point Park in 2002 to greet the Mayflower II as the wooden replica ship sailed into Providence from Plymouth Harbor. The fireworks returned, partially at the request of the hotel industry, in 2005, from the State House site.

—With reports from Steve Peoples, Journal State House Bureau

dbarbari@projo.com