LA CRESCENTA : Canceled Fireworks Show Sparks Lawsuit

Last July’s fizzled fireworks show in La Crescenta has flared into a lawsuit filed by the show organizers against a Utah pyrotechnics company and one of its contractors.

The Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce suit seeks more than $25,000 in actual and punitive damages from Lantis Productions Inc. and William A. Lovick. Chamber officials hired Lantis in March, 1992, to perform a fireworks show for the Fourth of July Family Festival of Fun & Fireworks at Crescenta Valley High School.

Lovick set up the pyrotechnics in the afternoon, but went home saying he felt ill and needed some rest, said Robert P. Kragulac, the chamber’s attorney, who filed the complaint April 7 in Glendale Superior Court.

Lovick never returned, forcing organizers to cancel the event and send the disappointed crowd of more than 5,000 home. It was later learned through local firefighters that Lovick was also setting up a show for the same day at the Saugus Speedway.

Ken Lantis, president of the pyrotechnics firm, said he has yet to receive a copy of the suit, but he feels that Lovick did the safe thing in not performing the La Crescenta show because he felt sick.

“We don’t think we did anything wrong,” he said. Lovick did not return phone calls seeking comment.

According to the complaint, the chamber lost $14,571 in expenses and $7,444 in profits. Tickets were sold at $4 and $5 each. Kragulac did not know the exact number of spectators who have yet to be reimbursed, but believes it is a small number.

Since the fireworks flop, chamber officials have demanded full compensation for their losses. But Lantis officials offered to put on a free show instead and return the chamber’s $1,000 deposit.