227 posts tagged “pyrotechnics”
What happens with a former fireworks display company owner has a birthday? A huge show of course!
I got a phone call a couple weeks ago from John asking if I'd help on a show for his birthday. I hadn't had any smoke in a while so I would have done it anyway, but when he told me they would be shooting 12" nothing would keep me away.
The show had about 2,500 shells, including several 12" shells and a gold section several minutes long. There were probably 25 people helping set up that morning, the racks and sandboxes were done in previous days. The shells were all ematched and marked ahead of time, with tubes marked with corresponding numbers, so setup went fairly smoothly and efficiently. All we had to do that day was drop the shells in the right tube and wire everything up, so after about four and a half hours we were almost done. I had been hoping to get a picture of myself holding a 12" shell because there probably won't be many chances for that in the future, but they had already been dropped the previous day.
There were plenty of pyros there and I had some work to do back home, so I left once things were mostly set up and returned about 45 minutes before showtime (7:30, it sure gets dark early now, a nice change from summer as long as weather cooperates). This time I got to just sit back in my chair and watch the show, without doing any post-show work.
The show was efired with a nailboard and was a lot of fun. It wasn't tightly scripted, but there was some good variety, big salutes, great big shells, nice false finales and a huge finale. The several minutes of gold was a little repetitive and went a little long in my opinion, but was still pretty cool. The show lasted over 30 minutes, which is probably the longest show I've seen and things were always happening.
(Video links at bottom of post)
Another super late post, I suck at blogging, etc etc. I'll keep this short.
This was a show with Wolverine for Bothell River Days, shot at the high school sports field. The show was 95% 1.4G, with a bunch of 1.75" salutes mixed in (Andy designed this show, so of course there were lots of salutes!). We had a lot of ematching to do, including XO shells, and ended up a lot more than were actually scripted. The one thing I was excited about was two of the old Swimming Pearls in the show, but one of them didn't fire! It was still great to see the old classic... The show was pretty good (similar to the Fircrest show below), but the music got all screwed up. The plan was for the guy in the sports booth to play the music the same time we started the firing script, but he messed up and the music was way off. Next time we'll bring our own speakers so we don't have to rely on others...
Lots of ematched XO shells:
One of the main cake positions:
If you look at the date on the last post, you can see I've been pretty lazy about blogging recently, even with a couple shows to post. I've had a lot of other stuff going on that hasn't left much room for pyro and now the season is pretty much over! Hopefully I find a few chances to light some stuff soon and get back in the groove.
Anyway, here is a show that happened more than a month ago and I'm just now posting... I'll just make this a quick one without too many comments just to get it done. This was the second of two shows Wolverine West did at Fircrest this summer, though I didn't make it to the first. The show was almost all 1.4G except for a bunch of 1.75" salutes and other similar small 1.3G items, as well as the same mines used in the Covington show. Here are a few pictures of the setup (click to embiggen):
Picture 2 - Lots of salutes and other shells.
Picture 3 - One of two mirrored cake positions.
Picture 4 - Center cake position.
Picture 5 - Overall setup with the event in the background.
The show was chaotic but fun, I'll just skip right to the video (direct links):
Part 1 and Part 2
Next late post coming soon about the show I helped with in Bothell...
I was up at my cabin this weekend and wanted to play with a few fountains. It is very dry up there and "technically" (....) there is a burn ban, so I needed to be extra careful. I decided not to try out the larger BC fountains I purchased at Firecracker Alley this year, and would stick to the much smaller Jack In The Box and Happiness fountains (as well as keeping the hose on hand). Despite the different sizes of all the fountains in that picture, Purple Rain will probably be the best performer... I also lit a box of the tiny Amazing Fountains on July 4th and found them quite entertaining. Anyway, here is my sweet pyro for the weekend...
Happiness Fountain (Phantom) - Probably a generic, but this one has a Phantom label. I wasn't expecting whistle in something this small and it kind of annoyed me (especially because I was trying to be sneaky). It was actually kind of impressive how many effects they fit in that little thing. It came in a box of six, but they are all the same color and probably the same effect.
Glad to see that these stupid kids were caught after such egregious misuse of fireworks... (Link)SACRAMENTO - School surveillance cameras and an anonymous tipster are believed to have played an integral role in helping authorities track down four juveniles blamed for starting a small fire using fireworks at a local elementary school.
Sacramento Fire Department officials say they've identified and cited four juveniles for an incident at John Bidwell Elementary School in which a small area carpet was damaged by fireworks set off on school property.
Neighbor Lights Illegal Firework After Dispute
"I know! I'll light one of my illegal fireworks to annoy an already pissed off neighbor!" This image seems appropriate. (Link)SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- A Michigan State Bomb Squad unit was called to a Saginaw Township apartment early Tuesday to investigate suspicions activity after one of its resident lit an illegal firework and threatened to blow up the complex.
Police said the 41-year-old man lit a three-inch mortar on his porch in retaliation after a neighbor asked him to turn down his music.
On a different note...
Chase won't pay for Seattle's Lake Union fireworks next year
Seattle could be without a Fourth of July fireworks show next year if no one steps forward to sponsor it, the show's organizer said Thursday.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., which acquired Washington Mutual last fall, paid for the bulk of last weekend's show but said it won't commit to sponsoring the event again.
Will my city have a fireworks show next year? This is the only big show in the city, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I'm sure they'll manage to get some sponsors, but it seems that $500,000 is unlikely, so we'll be seeing a smaller show. I watched the video of this past 4th the other day, but that would be a whole different post... (Link)
Friday is the Covington show with Wolverine, look for pics and video Sunday night or Monday, I'll be gone hiking most of the weekend.
I helped my uncle pick out $200 in product, a couple 200g cakes and lots of small stuff like ground flowers, bees, jumping jacks etc, mainly for the day and a few things when it gets dark before the 1.3G show where he'll be on the 4th.
But the item he really wanted was wheels, and Chris didn't have any. We went to three other stands within a few blocks (go Everett!), but nobody carried a single wheel! I did purchase a box of Fiery Eye (BP) and figured I could spare one since he wanted them so bad, I still have a few left and can get more for my own show if needed. I'll try and find some more wheels for him, but he won't get them in time for this year. This is why real pyros plan ahead, 365 days a year!
On the 3rd I'm setting up a barge show with Wolverine and will stop by the stands in the area. I'll bring a few of these things to play with during the day, just so I can light some fuses. I might also see if I can find some small fountains, I have a bit of a soft spot for them, and hopefully they won't cost much, even at tribal stand prices. We shall see...
Video here
I only took one real picture, so here it is... Left to right we have Phil, Rod and Dan setting things up.
The show was for the town's 100th anniversary, in combination with a Walk For Life cancer research fundraiser. The audience was at the track while we were setting up in the baseball fields a distance away, so while it was a fairly small show, it was almost all 1.3G unlike most other shows Wolverine does for this budget range. Rod was worried about 1.4G items getting enough height, so other than four Screaming Meemie 500g cakes, everything else was 3" shells and 1.3G cakes.
The 1.3G cakes used were all new ones that hadn't been shot in the US yet, so we didn't know the exact timing on them. As a result, Rod decided to manually efire the show so that the next item could be started when the previous one ended. They wanted a longer show, so it wasn't real exciting in terms of design. Basically it was all from one position, with single 3" shells one at a time, then a 1.3G cake, then more shells, repeating and speeding up a bit at the end with a few finale chains at the end. This is obviously different from the shows Wolverine usually does, and Rod called it a "[company name not given for tact]-style show."
Setup was done by 4pm or so, but showtime wasn't until 11:20pm, so we had a LOT of time to kill. I'm glad I brought a book! The show was originally scheduled to start at 11:45pm and have the finale go at midnight to mark the very beginning of the 100th anniversary date, but we were happy it was moved up a little. This also meant that the show could be sped up a little so it would be more exciting because we didn't have to end at an exact time. The mayor was giving a speech (that we could not hear from our location) and the lights going out at the end was supposed to be the cue to start shooting, but the light guy accidentally turned them off early and we started the show in the middle of his speech! He was apparently a good sport about it and didn't mind not having to read the whole speech.
The show was enjoyable if unremarkable. It was interesting to see the wide range of performance among the 3" shells of several different brands. I don' t know which were which, but some had larger full breaks, while others didn't look much better (and some were worse) than a good 1.4G shell. The new 1.3G cakes were all very nice, especially some of the high shot count fan cakes.
I used Rod's camera to get video, so I didn't get anything on my own camera. I might eventually get a copy from him, but it could be a while...
Next up is July 4th! I'll be helping on the Hederson Bay show again, so that should be a lot of fun. I don't know what the show is like this year, but I'll be helping drop product on the 3rd and hopefully poking around Firecracker Alley a little bit while I'm there...
Full story here.Members of the San Gabriel Valley Arson Explosives Task Force have seized more than half a ton of illegal fireworks from a residential neighborhood in Boyle Heights, averting a potentially explosive and deadly situation, authorities said.
“Given the amount of fireworks in the residence, and the densely populated area ... we could have had a detonation of all that material, and it would have destroyed a good portion of the block, or several houses,” said Alhambra Fire Department Assistant Chief John Kabala.
The investigation originated after arson investigators from the Alhambra Fire Department found dangerous fireworks and unlawful explosives being advertised for sale on Craigslist, Kabala said. The department conducts regular checks of the free classified advertising site, Kabala said.
Now selling fireworks that are illegal in California (a "safe and sane" state) is stupid, and advertising them on craigslist is even stupider. But that doesn't give fire officials permission to lie and exaggerate. Later in the article they compare it to a drug bust, which is accurate in the level of fearmongering and BS... I posted a comment in the article saying that the fireworks were 1.4G consumer fireworks, by definition incapable of mass explosion, but it seems to have been deleted. I'll post it again and see what happens.
Victory Fireworks is one of the wholesale vendors at Muckleshoot this year (same place the Northwest Pyro demo was at) and shot a small demo on Saturday that I was able to attend.
The selling season at the reservation has started now, but because it is still early, only about half (or less) of the stands there were actually open. I walked around a little, but didn't look too closely because I wasn't going to spend any money and didn't want to deal with pushy salespeople. I was surprised at how many random people were there shooting fireworks, most in very unsafe ways. It wasn't a good place to be if you value your life! There were salute cakes, rockets, shells, and ground salutes going on left and right, and all other items being shot every once in a while. Some were in a field next to the stands, but others were spread all over the parking lot and you had to drive through them to get to the wholesale area. One guy was even angling large salute rockets over the demo site, which was not appreciated. I can only imagine how crazy it gets closer to (or on) the 4th, and wouldn't want to be anywhere near there without a very good reason.
I didn't see it, but at one point during the demo, a salute rocket was shot at a very low angle and broke near some people on the other side of the parking lot (not sure if this was the same guy as before). After the demo there was a police car and fire truck there, but I don't know what happened. They didn't seem to be in any rush, but I think they did end up taking somebody away in an ambulance. It isn't a very safe place to be...
The finale was a big puke, which was fun, but included some rather poorly chosen SMBs...
On Friday I'm helping on a Wolverine show in Ephrata, WA, so I'll hopefully have a video and report by Sunday night. The show is all 1.3G, which will be different from most Wolverine shows I've helped on. Apparently it is stretched pretty thin, so we'll see...
