Fireworks Firms Blaze Trails but Feel the Heat

At the stroke of 9 tonight, hundreds of revelers gathered at John Anson Ford Park in Bell Gardens for the city’s annual Fourth of July festival will set down their paper plates filled with barbecue, sit back in their lawn chairs and look upward to be dazzled.

For 30 minutes, they’ll be transfixed by rapid-fire bursts of humongous chrysanthemums, mile-high showers of sparkles and shooting Roman candles.

The citizens of Bell Gardens and nearly 400 other communities across California and the nation can salute Rialto-based Pyro Spectaculars by Souza for inspiring their oohs and aahs.

Business is, er, booming, for Pyro Spectaculars and other major U.S. fireworks makers, despite their having to wrestle with some cumbersome new government regulations. Sales of fireworks -- from backyard sparklers to high-tech pyrotechnics -- are up 20% since 2001, a result of the surge in patriotism after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq, industry experts say.

The industry likes to say that fireworks aren’t just for the Fourth of July anymore. “We are seeing them at ballparks, casinos, weddings ... or when a shopping center has a grand opening,” said Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Assn., a trade group. “There is the feeling you’ll be able to keep a crowd if you have fireworks.”

Still, as much as 95% of consumer fireworks and nearly 75% of display pyrotechnics are sold around the Fourth.

The industry has seen its share of ups and downs. “For a moment, after 9/11, lots of things were being canceled,” said Christopher Souza of Pyro Spectaculars. “There was a sadness.”

But by July 2002, patriotic feeling had roared back. Souza’s customers, which include hundreds of California municipalities as well as Knott’s Berry Farm and major sports and concert promoters, have increased their fireworks budgets by as much as 10% this year. Souza wouldn’t disclose company sales.

Pyro Spectaculars, one of the oldest and largest high-tech fireworks makers in the U.S. and the producer of displays at the 1984 and 1996 Olympics, typically charges customers about $20,000 for a 20-minute display. The company also produces million-dollar shows, such as Macy’s Fourth of July event in New York.

Still, even a major concern like Pyro needs to stay on its toes. The competition to create bigger and more exciting fireworks is intense. “You have to consistently change and update,” said Souza, who is the fifth generation of his family to work in the business.

His company has about 5,000 varieties of pyrotechnic effects, with the latest innovation something called a “pattern” show: fireworks that explode in the shape of a happy face. “It looks like a giant M&M;,” Souza said.

Pyro Spectaculars also choreographs “sky concerts,” in which fireworks are set off in time to musical selections with the assistance of an electronic firing board.

One of the company’s biggest accounts is the Fourth of July display at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl. A narrator recounts events in American history accompanied by lighted pictorial set pieces -- such as the ship on which Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” -- in addition to a fireworks show.

Even as more communities sponsor large fireworks displays on the Fourth of July, backyard fireworks account for about two-thirds of the $700 million in fireworks sold each year, according to the pyrotechnics association.

“The backyard side of things is where the growth is,” said Heckman, the association executive director, noting that four states have lifted bans on retail fireworks in the last two years. In California, retailers are allowed to sell fireworks June 28 to July 6, though local municipalities have jurisdiction to regulate sales. In Los Angeles County, 38 communities permit fireworks sales.

Much of the surge in sales over the last decade has come from nonprofit groups, which have discovered that they can use fireworks as another channel for fund-raising.

Scott Glabb, the head wrestling coach at Santa Ana High School, has directed his group’s sales of fireworks since 1992. The first year, the team took home about $1,500, splitting the profit with its supplier, American Promotional Events of Florence, Ala., which does business under the name of TNT Fireworks.

Last year, the wrestling squad turned a $12,000 profit after paying for equipment rentals, permits, taxes and insurance. “It’s big bucks,” Glabb said.

TNT works with about 2,400 nonprofit groups in California annually, said John Kelly, vice president of the company. The firm distributes what are known as “safe and sane” fireworks, a government designation given to individual consumer fireworks that have been tested and approved by regulators.

With the exception of those classified as safe and sane, fireworks are legally considered explosives. In November, as part of the federal government’s homeland security efforts, Congress approved legislation regulating traffic in explosives and prohibiting felons and illegal aliens, among others, from handling fireworks or other explosives.

Producers of large display fireworks have felt the brunt of the new regulations, which require background checks and licensing for fireworks operators.

“The biggest effect of the new law is the paper,” Souza said. With more than 70 employees and 3,500 seasonal workers, his firm has had to devote a full-time worker to tracking compliance. That change, as well as a 300% rise in insurance costs, has led the firm to raise prices for the first time in more than 10 years.

Before the legislation passed, companies had to be licensed periodically by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Now, everyone from the local fire chief or Veterans of Foreign Wars member who buys and launches a packaged show for his community must have a federal explosives license or a permit issued by the ATF.

Display fireworks suppliers have had to take on the burden of providing the necessary paperwork to operators that purchase prepackaged displays.

“There are thousands of these operators out there, so this is new and significant,” Heckman said. “It’s been by far the most challenging year we’ve experienced in about two decades.”

Despite the struggles over the new restrictions, this year’s blasts will be bigger than ever. Heckman said she expected record sales this holiday of close to $775 million.

“Fireworks are so closely connected to us,” Heckman said. “If you look at the quotations of John Adams, he says every Fourth should be commemorated with rockets. It’s always been our tradition. We light up the sky to celebrate.”