69 posts from 2008

Bomb squad called for homemade fireworks

Osama

Two kids were detained by the Kern County Sheriff's Office after neighbors say they heard about five loud bangs that may have come from homemade fireworks.

The sheriff's bomb squad responded about 5:15 p.m. to the 2800 block of Kentucky Street in east Bakersfield. Authorities shut down the street for more than an hour before taking away a small box that they said contained hazardous materials.

The alleged perpetrators are ages 10 and 12, according to sheriff's officials. The kids were questioned and appeared to be released into their parents' custody.

No injuries were reported.

Everyone panic!

Yesterday was another Wolverine show, although this time I was just there was a spectator because I had an appointment early that day and couldn't help with setup, then had to be back in Seattle soon after the show ended, so no cleanup either. It was pretty nice to just show up and watch though!

Lakewood08-01

I'm not entirely clear on the occasion, but it had something to do with the local Boys & Girls club, Shriners, and Christmas. Apparently they've been trying to make a show happen for several years and it finally got off the ground, so that is cool. The show was landed by John, another guy that works with Wolverine, who also designed the show (I think he designed the Fife show I was at last year). The usual Wolverine shows are good, but this was a nice chance to see one done a little differently. Along with the usual Wolverine 1.4G products there were also some items by Brothers, World Class, and Black Cat.

I got there an hour before the show started and it was already dark, so the work was done and I couldn't see that much, especially because the cakes were all protected by plastic bags because of the risk of rain. The worst we had while I was there was heavy mist, which wasn't bad, but could have been a problem if they weren't prepared for it. As a result, I only got a few pictures and they don't show much...

Lakewood08-03

Lakewood08-02

Instead of the FireOne, this show was shot by John with his nailboard, so it wasn't nearly as tightly scripted as usual. If it was raining John planned on shooting the show much faster, so this system gave things a bit more flexibility, though obviously less precision, as the cue sheet above shows.

The show itself was good and very well received by the crowd (not that it is hard to please a bunch of kids with fireworks). The opener was a big wheel that unfortunately didn't spin, but still looked pretty cool. That was followed by over a minute of fountains, which was a bit too slow for me (and the crowd, I cut most of it from the video below). Then it was pretty much craziness for the rest of the show. It was a bit of a sky-puke at times, but still looked good and had a lot of nice stuff in it. Spreading things out in a front would have looked a lot better, but there wasn't space to do it. There was also a small waterfall, which was pretty cool, I hadn't seen one in person before.

Lakewood08-04

Haven't posted one of these is a while... I don't look through Freakpyromaniacs that much because of the language barrier, but there is always a lot of cool stuff, like this front of 13 consumer cakes at a consumer fireworks demo in the Netherlands. I don't know the exact numbers, but I seem to remember that they have a max tube diameter of an inch or so (comparable to a standard 200g cake in the US). On the other hand, they can have harder breaks. I still think we have it pretty good in the US, but they have a lot of nice stuff too.

For the second year in a row I helped on a Wolverine show in Sumner as part of their winter holiday kickoff. Overall it was pretty similar to last year, although I enjoyed the fireworks more this time (I got salute overload last year).

Sumner08-01

The weather last year was great, but November in Washington can be pretty wet, so we were prepared for rain. Every cake was wrapped in carpet protection tape, which I had read about but hadn't seen used before. The tape is wide and sticky on one side, so it is easy to wrap cakes and cover tubes, making them nearly waterproof. Because it is pretty thin plastic, you can fire right through it. Luckily it didn't rain beyond a tiny mist for a short time, but it was good to have and is a very useful trick.

Sumner08-02a

The site was the same as last year, with two firing positions. One closer to the bridge and one on the other side of the library. The product used was 35+ 500g cakes, 24 200g cakes, 24 "baby B" cakes, three large 1.3G cakes, and some shells, mines and comets at each position. I liked that there were far fewer salutes this time, although there were certainly some noisy moments.

Sumner08-03

At most points in the show, the same items fired from eaach position, often pairs of 500g cakes or groups of three 200g cakes. The large 1.3G cakes were at the further position for obvious safety reasons, so during those cakes, 500g 1.4G cakes were used at the position near the bridge.

The show was limited to only 5 minutes because they didn't want to block the road for too long, but because we fired from two locations the product was split and kept the whole thing from being a sky puke. There were a couple items I particularly wanted to watch for; Pow Bam, Nine, and Swimming Pearls. I wanted to compare the break size and effects between the two nine-shot cakes to help plan my own shows. I haven't seen Pow Bam shot in a while, and last time I helped on a show where a Nine was used there were too many other things going to pick out the breaks. Swimming Pearls is the version from the new factory that didn't swim (oops, the factory screwed up!), so I wanted to see what it did.

Sumner08-04

Sumner08-05a

(Far right - Continuity testing. The firing system was located between the two positions.)

(Right - Other position with bridge in the background.)

The nice thing about shooting this time of year is that it gets dark early, so showtime was 5pm! The show was very nice overall, with a few hiccups. There was some unintentional dark sky at one point (possibly from making a mistake on a cake duration) and two cakes didn't fire, one of which was the Pow Bam I was looking for, so that plan was foiled. The visco leader ignited but the first lift charge didn't go for whatever reason. I was watching at the position further from the bridge because it was a better spot to get video and I could also see the large 1.3G display cakes, though you could see the other position firing the whole time because it was in line with where I watched from. The colors in Swimming Pearls were fantastic, although it certainly didn't swim! (which is why they aren't selling on the consumer market). I might want it to fire a little faster, but I have high hopes for what it could be if the factory gets it right. I do sort of miss the nice long tails on the old version though...

Sumner08-06

ABC! While you don't always have to brace cakes, you need to check each type of cake and make sure it is stable. Most 500g will a large enough base that it won't be an issue, but you have to be careful with 200g. Usually putting a spent cake on either side will be plenty, or using tape or glue if on a board. Everyone should already know this, I was just thinking about it again because yesterday I was poking around the Red Rhino site and watched their demo video. I'm not trying to say anything bad about them here, just pointing out that accidents happen and safety is important.

Here is a little clip from that video.

"10-lbs. of marijuana seized following fireworks explosion"

A man injured by a malfunction of a fireworks mortar had 10 pounds of marijuana seized when deputies responded to his fireworks explosion near Laytonville at 12:36 a.m. Tuesday.

Chronic