Fireworks failures lead to apologies
Apopka’s Fourth of July fireworks show fizzled Wednesday and new Mayor Bryan Nelson posted an apology on the city’s Facebook page, promising a free show on Labor Day.
“As your Mayor I need to apologize to everyone who came out to watch an amazing fireworks display only to be disappointed that Creative Pyrotechnics did not perform,” his message read.
Creative Pyrotechnics, an Orlando-based fireworks vendor that had produced Apopka’s Independence Day shows in 2016 and 2017, also had problems in DeBary and St. Petersburg, where fireworks also failed to launch Wednesday night.
“We’ve never had these issues before,” E.J. Weppel, owner of Creative Pyrotechnics, which has been in business for 11 years, said Friday.
“A lot of it was the weather.”
Like Nelson, DeBary Interim City Manager Ron McLemore apologized for the cancellation. He promised a “thorough investigation” of the fireworks failure, according to the website Debarylife.com.
McLemore issued a statement on behalf of Mayor Bob Garcia, the rest of the City Council, city staffers and the “entire July 4th event project team” about his request to examine the performance of Creative Pyrotechnics.
He said the city might sue.
“I cannot express to you sufficiently the level of your City officials’ disappointment over the huge impacts this failure had on what we fully believed would have otherwise been the largest and most successful event the City has ever attempted to provide celebrating the combined birthday of our country and 25th birthday of our city,” McLemore wrote.
On its Facebook page, Creative Pyrotechnics issued its own apology Friday to DeBary and included photos of a soggy staging area.
“There was mass flooding due to afternoon storms and it is not safe to setup any kind of fireworks in standing water,” the post read. “While Creative Pyrotechnics wanted to produce the Display for the City of Debary, safety is our top priority.”
The company president also offered to put on a fireworks show on Labor Day.
Weppel said he sent similar explanations to Apopka and St. Pete officials.
“Creative Pyrotechnics has offered the City of Apopka & St. Petersburg a FREE fireworks display for Labor Day weekend,” he said Friday in a post on the company’s Facebook page. “It would be of the same size as the 4th of July Display(s) were to be. While we realize that this does not end the disappointment or frustration of residents and guests of these cities in the short term .... We would still like to make things right & deliver the shows everyone should have seen regardless...”
In Apopka, Nelson’s message said, “Unfortunately, the pyrotechnic technician sent to handle our event was inexperienced and didn’t have adequate help. At 5:00 p.m. he realized that he was missing some hardware and had to go back to the office in Deland to pick up additional supplies, which put him 90 minutes behind schedule.”
The vendor didn’t inform city staff about a problem until 8:30 p.m., Nelson said.
“I apologize for the inconvenience and understand your frustration but please understand that the City was at the mercy of Creative Pyrotechnics to perform their duties and they didn’t,” Nelson said in his message. “We are looking at all legal remedies.”
The company was paid $24,500, according to a document also posted on the city’s Facebook page.
Apopka police revealed Friday they contacted the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after a security sweep of the launch area and finding the fireworks crew had left explosives in launch tubes, including some deemed to be dangerous.
Police said federal code “requires all persons to store explosive materials in a manner in conformity with regulations” and ATF was conducting its own investigation.
According to police, the fireworks crew began dismantling launch equipment after canceling the fireworks show but did not finish and informed city employees they would wrap up the chore the next day.
Police said the crew left launch tubes and a rental vehicle overnight at the city-owned park.
St. Pete’s Fourth of July celebration also was a dud because of a fireworks snafu, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
All day, Creative Pyrotechnics had assured city employees that the grand fireworks display was good to go for 9:15 p.m. but that changed about 45 minutes before show time, Leisure Services Administrator Mike Jefferis told the newspaper.
At 9:45 p.m., the city tweeted “technical difficulties” forced it to cancel the fireworks show.
“We didn’t have any notice the show wasn’t going to go on,” Jefferis said. “We would’ve preferred to have canceled it earlier on if the vendor had given us the information, but honestly they waited until the very last minute to tell us this show was a no go.”
The company told officials it delivers products for shows all over the state. But the heavy rains and inclement weather slowed down its schedule earlier in the day.
Some Apopka residents vented on the city’s Facebook page.
“Ok, so we hired a bush league fireworks company,” one resident wrote. “I came for Independence Day fireworks and was charged for event parking for an event that was cancelled. You still owe me a refund on parking.”
The city charged $10 to park at the Northwest Recreation Complex for its Fourth of July event, which also included concerts, bounce houses, face painting and balloon artists.
Nelson ended his Facebook apology, promising a Labor Day fireworks show in September.
“The employees at the City and I are committed to making this right. We are working on a FREE Labor Day celebration event complete with fireworks to make up for the disappointing finish to our 4th of July event and hope to see you all there,” he said.