See Online Issue
Whitelist Us
Change Your Email Account

Click Fireworks to Enlarge

Welcome to "Secrets of Professional Fireworks Displays"

Welcome to the SkylighterFireworks.com newsletter, "Secrets of Professional Fireworks Displays." We are blessed to have one of the most competent fireworkers in the US, Ned Gorski, writing an article every two weeks for this newsletter. We hope you enjoy them and find them useful. Please let us know what you would like to read about and learn. We're wide open to suggestions. We'll be sending this newsletter to both Skylighter.com subscribers as well as SkylighterFireworks.com subscribers. But after January, unless you have subscribed to this newsletter, you won't see it anymore. So subscribe now, if you want to continue to receive it. It's free, of course.

Just a reminder, if you need fireworks for New Year's Eve, your order must be received here no later than noon, Monday, December 22nd. After that, there will not be enough time to get the order to you for your New Year's Eve display.

Use Wholesale Fireworks for Your New Years Fireworks Display

By Ned Gorski

Why I Create Fireworks Shows

I'm Ned Gorski, and I love fireworks.

I suppose that would be how I'd introduce myself at a "Fireworks Anonymous" 12-step meeting.

But, the truth is I don't want to stop playing with fireworks. I just want to do so safely, sanely, and ever more creatively.

Like many of us, I've loved fireworks since I was a kid playing with toy soldiers, and creating mock battles in the sand with firecrackers.

I remember as a kid, about 50 years ago, when my Dad would buy cherry bombs, silver salutes, and M-80's and we'd light 'em and toss 'em into the Lake of the Ozarks on camping trips.

Honestly, those fond memories do make me shiver a bit today. Knowing what I know now about the power of those bygone devices, I would never hold one of them in my hand and light the fuse before tossing it. And I would certainly never allow my kids to.

Looking back, I remember when Dad decided to see what an M-80 would do if placed in a metal garbage can filled with water. That can was placed out for the trash man to take away the next week, split wide open and ruined.

It's great that the safety and consistency of consumer fireworks, along with their variety and artistry, have come so far in the past decades.

Writing for Skylighter Fireworks

For a while now, I've been writing how-to articles for Skylighter.com, which sells supplies to fireworks hobbyists who are interested in making their own fireworks.

It has been a pleasure to do so, and I appreciate this new opportunity to share my insights in essays about consumer fireworks here at SkylighterFireworks.com.

For about 15 years Skylighter has been a great place for fireworks hobbyists like me to buy the supplies we need to pursue our passion.

But, now this latest aspect of Skylighter, with actual fireworks for sale, and the opportunity to buy consumer display fireworks for personal and competition fireworks shows, and to do so at wholesale fireworks prices, is pretty exciting.

There's one problem, though. There's so much to choose from when I'm picking product for my Fourth of July firework display, or my New Year's Eve fireworks celebration, that the choice is difficult.

One of my main goals, as I write these articles about consumer fireworks for you, is to accurately describe what each type of device does, and to highlight some of the product choices.

As I'm picking product for fireworks displays, information such as the length of time each device fires, along with photos and videos of the devices, is vital to my show planning.

This is the information I will be focusing on as I shine a light on these fireworks, along with fireworks safety.

My Experience in Display Fireworks

For about 20 years I've been passionate about learning how to make various fireworks devices, from rockets and fountains to aerial shells as large as 16-inches in diameter. I have a Federal manufacturing license and have competed nationally with my hand-made devices, and have been fortunate enough to have won the Pyrotechnics Guild International's (PGI) "Grand Master" award.

PGIs Grand Master Award

PGI's Grand Master Award

When participating in such competitions, there are two basic types of categories: device construction, and show production.

One of the basic competitions at the national PGI convention, and also at regional fireworks club events, is the production of Consumer Fireworks Displays.

In addition to making our own devices, many of us passionate fireworkers do enjoy the challenge of producing an effective, complete fireworks display. But, a lengthy, complete fireworks display would be difficult to produce using only homemade fireworks devices. It simply takes too much time and effort for one person to manufacture that many fireworks.

That's where commercially manufactured fireworks come into action. We can go to our fireworks distributor, purchase the various fireworks we want to employ in our show, and then apply our own creativity to the production of the display.

As a licensed, professional, fireworks display operator, and as an active member of various pyrotechnics guilds, I personally have participated in hundreds of professional and amateur fireworks displays. I enjoy the creativity and potential for entertaining an audience with that artistry.

Many of us who do enjoy putting on such a display truly strive to be artists and entertainers. Our goal is to evoke awe and emotion in an audience.

There is no more sure-fire way to entertain a small audience than with a well-planned consumer fireworks display. The gratification I get when I hear the crowd roar in appreciation at the end of the show is unsurpassed.

And in the guild competitions, I get to put my display choreography and production skills up against other highly skilled pyros. There are large competitions, which span the width of the whole field, and small, compact ones where all the devices are required to fit on one 4-foot by 8-foot piece of plywood, with only one fuse being lit at the beginning of the show. Points are sometimes awarded for the display, which comes the closest to a pre-set time, such as 5 minutes.

The opportunities for creativity, artistry, entertainment, technical expertise, and plain old enjoyment are almost endless when one begins with a vision and a few cases of consumer fireworks.

Different Types of Consumer Fireworks Ready for the "Big Show"

Legalities of Amateur Firworks Displays

The consumer fireworks devices sold by reputable outlets are regulated for safety and manufacture by federal agencies and fireworks laws. Therefore, these are federally legal fireworks.

But you need to know if you are legal locally. You should check your local and state laws and with authorities before planning a show and purchasing your fireworks. Often, if they know what you are doing, they will be on your side. You can have peace of mind knowing you're not going to get in trouble for your pyrotechnic efforts.

It goes without saying, though, that the quickest way for a fireworks display to go awry is to have a police car with flashing lights pull up and to have an officer tell us to "shut it down."

Safety in Your Fireworks Show

OK, this is the section many are tempted to skip in the enthusiasm and excitement about getting on with the show. But, if I stop for a moment, close my eyes, and imagine my fireworks display damaging some property, injuring me or, God-forbid, injuring some member of the audience--especially some innocent kid--then the motivation to think about firework safety issues all the way through becomes apparent.

Some thought and planning can ensure a safe, enjoyable and memorable fireworks display. What follows is, of course, not an all-inclusive safety checklist. It pays to thoroughly imagine what could go wrong and plan for those possibilities. What I like to do is to sit down and visualize every step of the show, every action that will be taken, and try to imagine what could go wrong.

An excellent guide to the safe production of a fireworks display is the Display Fireworks Operator Certification Study Guide, by the PGI. This is the manual for the course that licensed professional fireworks display operators take to become certified.

PGI Display Fireworks Operator Certification Study Guide

Storage of Fireworks

I'll be purchasing and receiving cases of fireworks prior to my planned event. Where will I be storing them safely before I take them out to use? Maybe I'll be using some of the fireworks today, and the rest in two months. How can I store them 'til then?

None of us plan on a house-fire, but if I have one and I have cases of fireworks stored in my residence, then disaster is just around the corner. A clean, dry, lockable, non-residential storage location is necessary.

A shed with a good lock would be a good idea. You can also rent a small, lockable, enclosed trailer for storage. Some folks buy lockable, metal tool storage cabinets.

You get the idea. You don't want kids or thieves getting into your fireworks stash, so a good lock is necessary. Don't store fireworks under the bed or next to the water heater or furnace. If there is a fire, you don't want to jeopardize your home or safety.

Planning Your New Years Eve Fireworks Display

When I am planning a fireworks display, I accept a responsibility to do so carefully and thoughtfully. Unless I'm willing to take this responsibility seriously, I'd be better off going back to watching TV.

Where will you be setting up the display? What sort of distances will there be to the spectators, automobiles, residences, dry fields and trees, etc? Is there a particular fire hazard because of recent weather conditions? Do you need to have folks move their cars so any burning fallout won't damage them?

There are some commonly accepted general guidelines when it comes to determining safe separation distances between fireworks and audiences in a commercial display. These can serve as guidelines for consumer fireworks use, too:

75 feet for ground display devices like fountains, strobes, small wheels, etc.
125 feet for large ground devices and for smaller multi-shot repeater cakes
70 feet-per-inch of tube ID for aerial shell mortars (i.e. 125 feet for 1.75-inch artillery shells, 210 feet for 3-inch aerial shells)

Maintaining these safe distances when I plan and lay out my display can go a long way toward ensuring the safety of the audience and personal property.

Bystanders are curious and love to walk around inside a fireworks display area, while the show is being set up. Erecting a safety barricade with some plastic safety barrier tape and fence posts can keep bystanders out of the display area as the show is being prepared.

Erect a Caution Tape Barricade to Isolate Shoot Site

Day-of-the-Show Safety Precautions

Some basic safety gear and precautions can make the day of the show a safe and enjoyable one.

If it's going to be a hot day, do I have plenty of water and cold, non-alcoholic beverages for my helpers and me? (Hopefully, it goes without saying that the consumption of alcohol by display operators should be saved for after the show and its cleanup.)

Basic safety gear for shooters includes: safety glasses, hard hats, gloves, long-sleeved cotton shirts and pants (synthetic clothing will melt onto skin if it is exposed to heat), and hearing protection. All of these items and others I'm about to mention are readily available at local stores such as Home Depot. I like thin leather gloves which protect my hands but allow me to feel shells and fuses as I'm reloading during a show.

A 5-gallon bucket of water can immediately cool a burned hand, and it and a couple of pump-up garden sprayers can douse fires in spent fireworks devices, or grass-fires. The most common source of fire during a display is cake devices that continue to burn after firing. A quick spray of water can nip those fires in the bud before they get out of control and spread.

Fireworks Display Fire Control: Pump-Garden-Sprayers, 5-Gallon Bucket of Water

A first-aid kit with bandages and burn ointment is absolutely necessary to have at the shoot-site.

Using flashlights while fireworks are being ignited helps locate the fuse, and prevents the operator from tripping over other devices in the dark. I personally like to use a ball-cap-bill-mounted flashlight, which provides hands-free illumination as I'm working. These cost about 5 bucks at Home Depot. This light will also mount on the brim of a hardhat.

Cap Mounted Flashlight, Thin Leather Gloves Used In Fireworks Displays

On pavement, many devices, like large multi-tube repeaters, are stable and require no additional reinforcement. But on most other surfaces, many devices are prone to bouncing and tipping over when they fire, which can create a dangerous situation if they happen to be pointing toward a shooter or the audience. So, on grass or in a field, stakes and tape are needed to stabilize devices to keep them from tipping over during the display. Stakes and duct-tape, or bricks, can be used to stabilize devices as they are set up.

When staking and taping a cake, remember to leave the fuse exposed on the front of the item for easy ignition during the display. If the cake is being set up on wet or snowy ground, placing some plastic under it will prevent the firework from absorbing moisture as it sits there.

Stabilized Consumer Fireworks

Stabilized Repeater Cake and Single-Tube Mortar, With Stakes-and-Tape and Bricks, Cake-Fuse Exposed and Ready to Light

Large plastic, lawn-and-leaf bags and plastic sheeting or tarps are a good thing to have on hand in case of inclement weather prior to firing the display. The bricks can be used to weight the plastic down in a wind.

Store aerial shells, which are to be reloaded during the display, in a fireproof container such as a plastic cooler. This will protect them from accidental ignition from burning fallout during the display. Keep this "ready box" closed except when a shell is being removed from it. If there are different size shells, such as 1.5-inchers and 1.75-inchers, store them in separate containers in the vicinity of their matching-sized mortars to avoid confusion during reloading. The fuses should be unwound and ready for reloading during the display.

Ready-Box with Aerial Fireworks Shells Ready to Be Reloaded During a Display

Lighting Your Display Fireworks

All the fuses on the devices should be pointing in one direction for easy ignition by the operator during the display.

All of the mortars should be cleaned out prior to the show if they have been used previously. Paper wrapping and "lift cups" can be left in the bottom of them from previously fired shells. During the show, prior to reloading new aerial shells, this debris should be cleaned out by either turning the mortar upside down and dumping out the trash, or by using a thin, long cleanout stick with a nail in the end of it to grab the trash and pull it out.

Every device should be ignited with the assumption that it will begin firing immediately, even though the safety fuse "should" provide 3-5 seconds of delay after ignition before the device fires. Never place any body part over the device during or after ignition. Fireworks mortar tubes are, in effect, very powerful cannons.

If you've ever tried to light a fuse with a match in the wind, or have had the burning "spit" from a safety fuse burn your thumb when you've lit it with a small cigarette lighter, then you know there has to be a better way. I only use trigger-operated propane or butane torches to light fireworks devices. They allow my hands to be out of the way. They provide strong, positive, quick ignition, and some light in addition to my head-flashlight. I especially like the little butane, self-igniting torch.

Self-Igniting Butane & Propane Torches For Lighting Fireworks

A "hang-fire" shell is one where the fuse ignites and burns, but the shell does not lift out of the mortar. This creates one of the most dangerous situations for the operator. The way to handle this situation is to assume the shell can launch at any moment. Cease using that mortar, and let it sit as-is for at least 30-60 minutes. Everyone on the display site must be made aware of the location of the misfired shell. After the waiting period, using the 5-gallon bucket of water, completely douse the shell in the mortar, filling the mortar half full of water. After the defective shell has been sitting in the water for a while, dump it out and save it to be burned in a trash burn-pile at a safe, later time.

Post-Fireworks-Display Cleanup

After all the devices have been fired and you've taken your bows in front of the appreciative audience, get a cold soda pop, and wait 15-30 minutes before beginning the site cleanup. This allows things to cool down, and ensures that no un-noticed misfires launch during clean up.

After that waiting period, and wearing all appropriate protective gear, check all multi-tube cakes and shell-mortars for misfires. Place all unfired, defective devices in a safe location and douse them completely with water. Burn them at a safe time and location in a trash burn-pile.

Assume that empty cakes can catch fire during the night, so stack them in a safe location, and not in garbage cans in your garage. For the same reason, do not transport them in a vehicle that night. If the trash it to be put out for the garbage service to remove, make sure it has no duds, misfires, or live product of any kind in it.

The shoot site should be cleaned up and inspected thoroughly the night of the display for duds before the general public is allowed onto the site. Then the area should again be checked the following morning in the daylight to locate any other unspent devices, which could fall into the hands of curious children and possibly injure them.

Trash should be raked up, and any holes in the ground should be filled in. Leave the site like you found it.

Safety Conclusion

With planning focused around all of these subjects, a successful, relatively stress-free, safe and enjoyable fireworks display can be produced. Most folks will never realize the amount of work that goes into a good show, but they also will never get to experience the satisfaction that comes from creating such a work of art and hearing the audience's cheers during and after it.

You Can Do This New Year's Eve Firworks Display

New Year's Eve presents some unique opportunities and challenges as far as fireworks displays go. In my neck of the woods it will be very cold that night, so my audience won't be willing to stand outside for long. If I want to shoot my "stuff" at midnight, I really don't want it to be tremendously loud and annoy neighbors who might have retired earlier than us revelers.

With these considerations in mind, I chose four different devices to celebrate with this year. All of these are currently available from SkylighterFireworks.com and can be delivered to you in time for your show if you order by December 22nd. If you order them before December 31st, you can even get free shipping.

I'll start with some "luminaries" fountains lining the driveway, on the lawn alongside it, and ignited as my guests arrive. For this effect I'll use Hawaiian Rainbow, #2FT1002 fountains.
If sober guests want to have some fun by lighting their own devices during the evening, I'll have some roman candles available. I really like American Lancers, #2RC1003, and I'll have some used artillery shell mortars for them to place the candles into prior to lighting them.
Before midnight I'll light some small whistling rockets, Strike Out, #2RK1004.
Then, as the crowd counts down and the clock strikes midnight, I'll light a line of six, 49-shot Hooligans, #2CK5053.

Here are some details on each of these devices.

Hawaiian Rainbow

This fan-shaped fountain burns red, green and blue, then torches to a silver and yellow shower. Five tubes burn at a time.

Duration: 30 seconds
Height: 3-4 feet
Quantity per case: 48/2. 48 two-packs, 96 fountains per case.

Notes:

For about $1.34 per fountain, this baby is a heck of a deal.
With 96 of them per case, I'll have plenty for today's display, and more for later, too.
It's a pretty little fountain, with 5 individual sprays which start as deep, rich red, green and blue flames, and then change to bright, color-changing sparks.

Hawaiian Rainbow Fountain Color Sprays, Silver Sparks, and Yellow Spark Showers

I like to set each fountain on a brick in the lawn so it stays upright.

Here's a video of one of the Hawaiian Rainbows in action.

I plan on placing the bricks and fountains every five feet, in a line 10 feet off the edge of my driveway, on the downwind side. As my guests arrive and park on the street, I'll light the "luminaries" fountains starting at the street-end of the line and let my guests walk up the driveway, enjoying the unique greeting, making sure they stay well away from the flames and smoke.

American Lancers - 8 Shots

These patriotic roman candles each pack 8 powerful shots of alternating red, white, and blue stars with crackling.

Duration: 14 seconds
Height: 50-70 feet
Quantity per case: 36/4. 4 candles per pack, 36 packs, 144 candles per case.

Notes:

Single-tube, 8-shot roman candle
Nice, consistent roman candle with good variety between the four different effects: red, white, blue, and crackle
Although it was done for decades, it is no longer recommended that roman candles be held in the hand. It is best to place them into a hole in the ground, tape them to a stake, or insert them into a reloadable-artillery-shell mortar. Four of the American Lancers will fit into a 1.75-inch ID mortar, and can be lit simultaneously to create a multi-tube repeater effect.
Watch a video of American Lancer Roman candle.

American Lancer Roman Candles Inserted in 1.75-Inch Artillery Shell Mortar for Safe Operation

Strike Out

Three great rockets with varied effects: whistling tail to delayed crackling, red whistling tail to crackling flowers, and green whistling tail to crackling.

Quantity per case: 72/12. 72 packs of 12 rockets for a total of 864 rockets per case.

Notes:

864 rockets in a case, for less than 20 cents per rocket. Well, this is a no-brainer. Enough howling, whistle rockets for a year.
There are three different rocket-effects in each package: howling whistle to a crackling starburst; a howling whistle motor which ejects small red stars as it rises and ends in a crackling starburst; and a howling whistle motor which ejects small green stars as it rises and ends in a crackling starburst.
The rockets can be comfortably launched from pieces of PVC plumbing pipe, which have been driven into the ground.
These are light, small rockets, so fallout from them ought to have minimal impact. Just the same, I want to make sure that I fire them in a direction which ensures that spent rockets and fallout lands away from buildings, vehicles, or spectators.
Watch a video of the Strike-Out rocket.

Six Strike-Out Rockets Loaded in Launch Tubes, Ready to Light

Hooligan - 49 Shots

A rowdy clash of blue tails to golden spinners with silver flying fish alternating with red comet tails to a rumble of whistling spinners with reports.

Relatively soft, quiet cake
Quickened finale the last 7 shots.
Duration: 80 seconds
Height: 100 feet
Quantity per case: 6/1 Six cakes per case.

Notes:

Relatively soft, quiet, and pretty cake.
3-6 of these, fired in a line, make a nice 80-second display.
Final 7 shots are fired in a rapid, quickened finale effect.
Very pretty red and blue rising comet effects, silver flying fish, and soft gold tourbillion spinners
Watch a video of Hooligan.

Conclusion

Well, there are my plans for the New Year's Eve celebration, and the four cases of product I can order from SkylighterFireworks.com to make my audience happy. Have a great, safe holiday season and a Happy New Year.

See ya next year,

Ned Gorski
ngorski@skylighter.com

If you have received this mailing in error, or do not wish to receive any further newsletter mailings from us, simply click here to Unsubscribe. You will be automatically removed from any future mailings.

To mail a request to be removed, send your letter to:

Skylighter Fireworks
PO Box 480
Round Hill, VA 20142

To subscribe to the "Secrets of Professional Fireworks Displays" newsletters which share tons of free tips on creating exciting fireworks displays, using fireworks, free product offers, and deep discounts, click here.

To update or change your e-mail address, simply click here.