Fear Not, Fireworks Fans: The Shows Will Go On

Things were looking grim for the traditional bang, snap and crackle of Fourth of July fireworks this year.

An explosion in southern China had destroyed 20 fireworks warehouses in February. Then, the Chinese government closed one of the few ports that handle hazardous cargo. And in a pre-Olympics move, China halted the transport of dangerous chemicals, including those used to make the Roman candles, sparkling fountains and volcanoes that elicit oohs and ahs on Independence Day.

Because about 90 percent of the world's fireworks come from China, the fireworks industry warned that it was poised for a shortage that might cancel hundreds of hometown celebrations across the United States.

"The Jaycees and support clubs, the fish-fry-for-fireworks -- those are the shows at risk," fireworks industry executive Julie L. Heckman said as recently as last week. Heckman is executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, the lead trade association for fireworks.

But industry officials were wrong. From the colossal displays lighting up the Washington Monument to the Ida Lee Celebration in Loudoun County, the big-blast fireworks shows will not sputter. Organizers of those events locked in their orders many months ago.

It turns out that the real shortage facing the fireworks industry may be of customers willing to shell out $60 for a Mega Mammoth Missile Monster or 75 cents for each Squiggly Star. Prices are up by about a third this year.

"In this economy, not that many people are going to open their pocketbooks to watch something burn up for 30 or 40 seconds," said Larry Maske, membership director of the Firecracker Club, an organization of pyrotechnicians on the East Coast.

The fireworks industry is divided into two main groups: professional pyrotechnicians who blast huge fireworks displays into the air over towns and cities, and roadside vendors who sell sparklers, fountains, cones and snakes.

On the morning of Feb. 15, as the fireworks popped and sizzled 30 hours after the warehouse fire in Sanshui, China, the big-display guys began to worry.

"We get fireworks every month," said Lansden Hill, the president of Pyro Shows, which produces the huge display on the Mall. "We have them come in all year long, and I just started looking at everything we had and began holding on tight to it. The Fourth of July is absolutely the largest day of the year. It's the day Santa comes in our business."

"I have hundreds of 8-inch and 10-inch fireworks sitting in China right now, going nowhere," Hill said. Those are the ones that make the enormous chrysanthemums that blossom in red, white and blue over the Mall and others that streak across the sky.

But Hill, who inked a contract with the National Park Service for the coveted Mall show last year, said he has enough of the huge shells on reserve to put on this year's show, at sunset July 4.