Girard fireworks get modern change

Girard fireworks spectators may not have noticed any difference in this year’s 14-minute, 135-shell fireworks display at Red Wutke Park.
But behind the scenes, a small change makes all the difference. This year’s fireworks preparation involved a change to electrically discharged fireworks from past year’s hand-fired display.
“I believe it’ll make a better timed show because we’ll have more control,” said fireworks operator Fred Talbott, Girard. “Trying to coordinate between two people is hard; because of the noise you have to communicate by hand signals. With electric, we can have one person in total control of every shot being made. You’re in total control of the show.”
But beyond that concern, the hand-fired method does not take a lot of time to prepare, but it is also a little bit more tense for the operators.
“You have on flame-retardant clothes, safety glasses, and a hard hat,” said Talbott’s helper and friend, Rob Rhea, Pittsburg. “You have road flares in your hands, and you’re also trying to duck so you don’t get hit by the shell’s explosion. You can’t really see the show, because you’re having to duck away. At best, you might catch the burst over your shoulder.”
The electric system involves each shell being hooked up to a wire that connects to a launch button. This process takes much longer than the hand-firing method.
When preparing the fireworks, operators first have to set up launching mortars, which the shells are fired from. Using the electric method, operators then have to connect wires to each shell and place those shells on top of the mortars.
Once the shells are in place, each shell is lowered into the mortar and hooked up to a “rail”. These rails are connected to the firing mechanism that can fire off any of the shells in the show at a push of a button.
The shells come in various sizes, including 3-inch, 4-inch and 5-inch. The larger the shell, the longer the delay before it bursts. Some shells have unique patterns, including the crowd-favorite “smiley face” shell. There were two scheduled for Friday’s show.
For an electrically triggered show like Girard, Talbott and his crew planned to work for five hours each in preparation. That equals about 15 hours of prep work for 14 minutes of smoke and fire.
“You’ve got to have a little bit of pyro(maniac) in you. You have to like to blow stuff up. We’re also celebrating our independence and people just love it. It’s a lot of work, but you can’t be afraid to work. It’s all worth it in the end. It’s the thought of making people happy, of making kids happy. All that, plus watching stuff blow up. It’s colorful, it’s pretty, it’s loud.”
One of the biggest priorities for fireworks operators is safety. Every shot is watched both as it launches and as it blasts to make sure no mortars have fallen over, all shots have gone off, and no one gets injured.
But even the best laid plans could always go awry in unexpected ways.
“We had a big display in Fort Scott a couple years ago,” Talbott said. “We had five guys who worked eight hours each on that display. About 30 minutes before the show, we shine the flashlights over and we see eyeballs in the mortar area. We shine it again, and sure enough, it’s eyeballs. We get closer and see that it was a deer checking the display out.
It left the right way, but imagine if it had gotten spooked and he ruins the mortars or trips some wires? There goes the whole show. That was terrible, but lucky.”

Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 132.