Ash sparks a fuse by accident and brings St. Petersburg's July Fourth show to a disappointing finish.
By EMILY ANTHES
Published July 7, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG - The city celebrated Independence Day on Monday by sending bursts of red, blue, green and gold into the night sky.
But what goes up must come down, and this year what came down was a piece of ash that accidentally set off the fireworks finale more than 10 minutes early.
The result was a show that ended with a fizzle instead of a bang and had some residents complaining it was a dud.
"Everybody in the general area sat there thinking there was more coming," said Mick Tomas, a St. Petersburg resident who has watched the fireworks from the waterfront for the last several years. "When it didn't, we all looked around, like "What? That was it?' "
As it turns out, a wind gust led to all that disappointment.
The shells and tubes for the finale were set separately from those for the main part of the show, said Randy Pritchard, the coordinator for Great Show, the company that put on the display. The finale fireworks were bundled together into three sections and then covered to protect them from being hit or lit by debris falling from the other fireworks.
But about a third of the way through Monday's show, the wind blew a piece of falling ash underneath the cover. The ash ignited the fuse on the biggest of the three finale sections, setting off about half the fireworks finale less than 10 minutes into the show, Pritchard said.
It was impossible to reload the finale mid-show, so when the time came for the real show-ending spectacle, not much happened. The fireworks crew tried to compensate by setting off some extra shells they had on hand, but the damage was mostly done.
"We made the best finale that we could make with what we had left,' Pritchard said. "We only have so many choices."
But some city residents accustomed to the finale's usual rumble and flash of color still wanted more.
Lee Metzger, St. Petersburg's city services administrator, said the city has received a few complaints about Monday's show, which is a joint production of St. Petersburg, the Pier and Clear Channel. But Metzger said that other than the problem with the finale, the show measured up to previous years' displays.
"I thought up until the finale part of it, it was really great," he said. "But it just left everybody wondering what happened. People have come to expect big finales over the years."
Great Show has been doing the city's July Fourth fireworks since 1980, and Pritchard himself has been in charge of the show for the last 10 years. Nothing like this year's finale fluke has happened to him before, he said.
"If people are going to say, "I wish the finale was longer or bigger or brighter,' there's nobody more disappointed than us," Pritchard said. "If they're disappointed, we're 100 times that."
Though errant sparks can set fireworks off too early, it happens rarely, Pritchard said.
Tomas, who said the explanation for the disappointing finale made sense, said he was willing to look past this year's mishap.
"Some of my friends were saying Channelside over in Tampa has a good display so I was thinking of going with them" next year, he said. "But I hate to go all that way. I live right here. Maybe I'll give them another chance."
