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Fireworks Safety

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chancery
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Fireworks Safety

#1

Post by chancery »

A couple of days ago young man was killed during a fireworks display at a wedding reception because a mortar “tilted slightly and started to fire toward people.” It's all over the internet, and it's very sad indeed. And there have been a couple of previous fireworks incidents in recent years at, ... parties in anticipation of the birth of a child.

According to one article, "the shells being fired from the launch tube were three inches in diameter, which is the largest legal size Michigan allows for consumer use." Also, "the first round went over their heads and the second exploded" near the victim." https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/n ... 871945002/

I've spent my life in states where fireworks are illegal, although frequently ubiquitous on holidays. I have only one close experience with backyard fireworks more dangerous than sparklers, or the little crackers that get thrown around sidewalks on Chinese New Year. It was at a small gathering involving three or four families. As I recall, there were a dozen or so separate units, bootlegged from Pennsylvania to suburban New Jersey. Each was in a squarish rectangular cardboard container that didn't seem susceptible to tipping. I think there was a low table or platform of some kind, and it didn't seem tippy either.

I'm a cautious sort and was there with a child, so I was a little apprehensive and kept my eyes open. I don't remember what the firing mechanism was like, but don't recall noticing anything about the work flow that seemed problematic for a careful person.

The description of the accident is obviously sketchy and likely preliminary. However, I'm curious if anyone here with more experience has any speculation about what might have happened. Is this the kind of thing that happens regularly with "consumer" fireworks even when they aren't being blatantly mishandled? Or ... but I really don't have enough experience to offer any theories.
Mr brolin
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#2

Post by Mr brolin »

"Mortar" fireworks act on the same basic principles as a military mortar.

Hollow, smooth walled tube with a flat base, usually mounted on a flat square platform for stability with the "mortar" usually consisting of a round display munition mounted on a smaller bursting propellent charge on the base of the display munition. There is usually a hard and curved cup forming the base of the display munition so the whole unit get pushed up and out, not punctured, burned or ignited in the tube.

The round display munition is slightly smaller diameter than the tube, the walls of the tube and the display munition are supposed to be very smooth so no catching or lateral movement when the propellent charge goes off.

The propellant charge is ignited, blows up (well ignites, burns very fast and generates a lot of hot gas) generating a high specific impulse to the display unit and throws it up and out of the tube. Depending on the manufacturer, the ignition of the propellant usually starts a short delay fuse on the display unit that ignite the firework at a set altitude...bang, pretty light show.

Stand alone "Mortars" usually come with a small square base rarely with a ground spike or anything holding them in place so if you place it on soft ground, or uneven ground etc it can be unstable and tilt, fall and so on.

Multi packs of "mortars" usually come in a frame, typically wooden, usually with stabilizing legs in the base so much more stable

Other less than fun part is if the propellant is too powerful or the pusher cup isn't strong enough, you can detonate the whole thing in the tube....shrapnel all over the place. BAD

Or....the display unit or tube aren't smooth so you can end up with the them catching which can make the tube burst (overpressure from the propellent) then the display unit can detonate on the ground not up in the air BAD

Or the side of the display unit tears, ignites in the tube and you end up with a flame fougasse belching high temperature flames in random directions. BAD

Moral of the story is fireworks be dangerous, treat with respect, don't ignite when drunk, always ensure if sh*t happens it points AWAY from you.

(As an geeky side note, gunpowder doesn't REALLY explode, it burns very very fast, generating copious amounts of hot gas, usually called deflagration. Confining it in a hard, rigid tube (aka pipe bomb) uses the rapid expansion of gas to rupture the container not explode a-la C4/P4/Semtex and so on)
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Kendra
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#3

Post by Kendra »

I have no knowledge of fireworks and what type(s) are used, but my city has a zero tolerance, no fireworks even on the 4th (that includes sparklers), it has been better since they started that, but still there's jerks who can't just go out in the country somewhere. This 4th, after dark there was the usual noise, but then it started booming really close to home. Looked outside and some moron was shooting something off something that was pouring stars all around the apartment building directly across the street from me. Lucky he didn't burn it down :mad:
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neeneko
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#4

Post by neeneko »

ugh. I think the biggest risk of setting off fireworks in my town is (I can dream) of being throttled by neighbors.

There is a collection of families here who set them off nearly every day for weeks before and after holidays. My local FB page is filled with people asking for help due to pets running away.
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Maybenaut
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#5

Post by Maybenaut »

I lived in Alaska for a couple of years. In the borough where I lived it rained *a lot* so tinder wasn’t much of an issue. Many types of fireworks were legal. Problem was, in that part of Alaska it didn’t get dark in July until well after midnight. By then, lots of folks who wanted to shoot off fireworks were drunk as fuck. So the issue wasn’t as much burning shit down as it was putting someone’s eye out.
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Atticus Finch
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#6

Post by Atticus Finch »

Two years ago, my neighbor's two story house was hit by an illegal firecracker and it was destroyed. Having shingles roof didn't help. Luckily she wasn't home at the time because she was in the process of remodeling the house and was renting a house nearby.
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chancery
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#7

Post by chancery »

Thanks for your comments.

I’ve seen some mortar tubes for sale with what strike me as inadequate bases.

https://www.pyrojunkiefireworks.com/pro ... 00-mortar/

There’s a video put out by a fire department in a town north of Houston that recommends nesting the mortar tube inside a cinder block or nailing it to a flat sheet of plywood. Both methods seem pretty solid, although I guess I could imagine the plywood base teetering if it were placed on uneven ground. And perhaps choosing the size of the base is a little tricky. Bigger ones are more stable, and better able to compensate for uneven ground, but too big and there's a risk of people stepping on it or tripping over it.

Professionals apparently use solid racks, and I can see why.

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filly
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#8

Post by filly »

The Fourth of July and New Year's Eve are my least favorite holidays due to the damned fireworks. They are shot off for two weeks surrounding both holidays. It's intolerable and goes on until 3 or 4 in the morning. I used to love going to a fireworks show as a kid, at the local high school. Everybody and his brother didn't have an arsenal.

Where we're living now it wasn't as bad. The night of the 3rd some morons were shooting a bunch off, but only for about an hour.

None of this has to do with celebrating Independence but is just another excuse for (mostly) men to live out some kind of war fantasy. I hate it!
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Azastan
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#9

Post by Azastan »

Kendra wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 10:42 am but still there's jerks who can't just go out in the country somewhere.
Yeah, no, I don't want fireworks anywhere near my property. One of my friends spent her evening patching up her 2 year old filly which had run through a fence due to fireworks. Pierce County didn't enact an emergency ban, thanks in part to her neighbour, Amy Cruver, voting it down.
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Kendra
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#10

Post by Kendra »

A couple of years ago some aholes in the neighborhood thought it was funny during the daytime to shoot their fireworks directly up a tree where the crows had nests. Wish the crows had shot their eyes out.
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raison de arizona
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#11

Post by raison de arizona »

Fifteen or so years ago I moved from a state with no fireworks to a state where they were at least tolerated. My ex-wife took me and the fam (4 boys, aged 4-10) to a family "cousins" party. It was large, like a hundred people or more in the cul-de-sac. I should have known these were not my people when I met her uncle, who had lost a thumb to... fireworks. They had a whole show planned with a big finale, the main guy being a cousin that worked in the movie industry doing special effects. So I assumed he knew what he was doing, big mistake. Everything went well, and the big finale was up. I don't even remember how many inches the mortar was, but it was way bigger than anyone not doing a professional show should have access to. The guy who supposedly knew what he was doing came running past after he lit it to take shelter behind the house, at which point I did as well with my family. If he was hiding, I sure as heck was too. The mortar blew out the bottom of the launch tube, and only launched like 30 feet-ish in the air before going off. Pure armageddon. That was some scary shit. To this day I have no idea how someone wasn't seriously injured, but that was my first and last private semi-amateur fireworks show.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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Kendra
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#12

Post by Kendra »

I just don't get it, especially in denser neighborhoods. There are elderly, pets, veterans who can't handle the big kabooms. Babies sleeping. Houses to burn down. People like me that just want to sleep :crazy: :notlistening:
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Kendra
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Re: Fireworks Safety

#13

Post by Kendra »

From a story on my local (to me) police blotter:
Firework injures boy: 12:43 p.m., patrol responded to the Park Place Apartments, 1406 Maple Lane, for a 10-year-old boy who was severely injured by a firework, additionally it was reported that the child’s parent fainted. Officers contacted the child and tended to the child until Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority arrived. The child suffered significant injuries to his right hand due to the firework explosion. The injured child was one of several children playing with fireworks in front of the Horseshoe Acre Mobile Home Park, 1540 Maple Lane. The child was transported to Harborview Medical Center by medics.
This is around the time and within a couple of blocks of what I witnessed early on 7/5. Transport to Harborview is a bad sign (that's the #1 trauma center), but eff the effing parents who let that kind of :shit: happen. I know what fireworks I saw from the kitchen window (granted I'm fireworks challenged), but that was some seriously dangerous :shit: that should have been in control of experienced adults and not little kids.
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