Grand Lake’s fireworks showturns bad

Grand Lake fireworks facilitator Chuck Barry stood on the edge of the Grand Lake town dock, peering into the water at a sunken barge split in two.

Tears welled in his eyes. It was a very close call on the Fourth of July, and he was thinking of his two grandchildren, he said.

He showed a gash on his left leg fromflying debris. He was humbled by what happened and expressed deep relief no one had been hurt.

“My dad’s an emotional wreck,” Barry said. “He thought he lost his son last night.”

The would-be 20-minute Grand Lake fireworks show around 10 p.m. Friday was cut to 12 minutes because of what Barry sayswere two or more “faulty shells.”

He and his employee, Chris Toller, had been out on a barge managing the $23,000 show when an explosion took place, destroying and sinking one of three fireworks barges about 700 feet from the shore.

Afaulty shell had toppled over and set off the finale before the end of the show, Barry said.

Barry said his team has a protocol ofweeding out unsafe shells. They were in shock by what went bad.

In the 35 years the Barry family of B&K Explosives has run the Grand Lake fireworks show, a near-accident like this never has taken place, he said. Chuck’s father, Ray Barry, originally started the fireworks tradition in Grand Lake.

Grand Lake firefighters were at the town’s shore over the weekend assisting in hauling in equipment and working to locate a winch to remove the sunken barges.