First, let me say that I am not against the use of fireworks by responsible folks...this is directed only at the DARWIN AWARD candidates

Well...I was on duty New Years Eve, here in a rural area full of homes on 80' x 120' lots with hundreds of tall, dried up palm trees...and other thick landscaping vegitation.
We knew we were in for "amateur night" (amateur drinkers, amateur pyrotechnic experts, ect. ect.)

Lets see...the first of 11 fireworks related calls we responded to was at about 10:00 PM, when someone set the top of his neighbor's 30' tall palm tree on fire with a rocket of some kind.

Then there was a vacant lot set on fire (also by fireworks)

Next, someone lit one of those big mortars on their front porch, and accidentally kicked it over when they ran away.
It fell over in the direction of the opened front door...and shot that big ball of sparks, smoke, and fire right into the living room.

Several more trees were taken out by rockets throughout the night.

Some kids had a huge party at this one house that sits just down the road from a 3 way intersection, and set off so many fireworks that the smoke literally made visibility about ten feet.
Then, one of the party-goers (drunk, of course) got into his pickup truck, and proceeded to drive right through the stop sign (which he could not see because of the smoke) at about 30 MPH...and crashed straight into the side of a house.

Then somebody lit a roman candle...and, when it did not immediately work...decided to look down the "muzzle" to see what was wrong.
Guess what happened next.
(he got lucky...it got him in the forehead, and took out the front part of his hairdo)

Some people tried to put on a "professional" style fireworks display in their back yard, with two rows of mortars and rockets securely fastened to a picnic bench, and all tied into one fuze.
Well...the first mortar to shoot off made the bench fall over, resulting in an artillery fire mission directed at the house accross the canal in the back yard.

Ahh...New Years Eve.
(Cant wait for July 4th)

Amateurs . . .

Damm man, you had a busy night.

All I had was a single car MVA (jump and run, but they followed the blood trail and the dog found him) and an overdose.

"Alcohol, the worlds lowest high...!"

Hunt the pricks down stuff a 2 1/2 inch up their a** and turn it on Maximum PSI!!!!!


Or shove them rectum first down over the deck gun and see if you can launch them like a bottle rocket!!!!(P.S. rookies clean up the mess!:) )

Well...that was only the "fireworks related" calls.
We still had our usual quota of "normal" calls.

Our average is between 15 and 20 runs per shift...most of them EMS.

You wonder why we call it "Flori-DUH"?

heh... we light up about 20 of those big ass mortar rounds, but it's in about 5 acres of open land (mowed grass), surrounded by 50 acres of property. This is on july the 4th

Also the time when everyone brings their toys :)

non-stop bulletfest till the sun gets to us.

[ROFL2][ROFL2][ROFL2][ROFL2]
Oh man a slap stick writer couldn't make something as funny.  I mean it sucks that happened but damn [ROFL2]

I shoot about 20 shows a year and I just want to thank you madmedic and all the other firefighters for all the time and efort you folks put in!!!
Every show I have ever shot the firemen have bent over backwards to make things go smoothly and safely!!!
Thanks again
BIG
[pyro]  [pyro]  [pyro]  [pyro]  [pyro]  [pyro]

LOL...You have to love amateur nights. Makes going to work a lot more interesting....Lets not forget the 4th of July and Halloween. Those are my two favorite nights to work...

assault weapons-pre or post?

Hehe... man, I've lit off a lot of fireworks in my day (mostly in Montana, a little bit here in Washington) and never had anything really bad happen.  Sure there have been the occasional "Ah crap it fell over!! Runnnn!!" moments [:)] but that's all just good fun right?  Oh ya one time in MT at my parents' house (all the lots are on at least 5 acres... lots of open space) a large rocket came shooting over the trees towards us from the neighbors' house... about 3 seconds later we hear the wife next door yell out "Sooooorrryyyyyyy!!" So of course we launched a couple rockets back at them [:)].  

Now, one time at a "professional" display in CA... we had been waiting for hours for it to start (had to get there early since it was PACKED) finally it starts... one shell goes off into the sky... "booom"... pause... another, "boom".... pause.... pause... BOOOOOOM we couldn't actually see where they were lighting them off but lots of light and smoke was visible in the general area, coming from the ground.  Nothing happened for a couple minutes, then fire engines showed up and entered the park where the fireworks stand was.  And that was the end of that 4th of July....

I get sick of all the bottle rockets that end up landing in my yard and on my roof.  Thank God for composite shingles.

Good post..........

Fireworks are legal here so we do it every year.  This year we did the big moror with double starburst rated to a height of 150'.  Well the first three did just exactly as advertised, pretty.  The fourth blew up in the tube sending sparks in a 50' circle followed by blast two and another 50' circle all on ground level.  It was fun there in the middle of that large asphalt parking lot especially since we always backed off the recommended distance.  

Change the place and proceedure and it could have been a disaster.

Tj

And you should thank those people that you have a job.

I love to take the .308 and fire off M60 blanks or stuffing a muzzle loader with toilet paper (not the whole barrel, just enough to pack the powder) and firing into the air.  Nice long flames shooting out the barrel.  I also love arty simulators, smoke grenades (1 year I had the entire neighborhood so smoked up with red and green smoke you couldn't see squat) and home made fire crackers (pyrodex tightly wound in brown paper).  I just enjoy the field expedient fireworks.  [red]Please bear in mind that I have been trained by Uncle Sam on the manufacture of field expedient munitions/explosives.  Do not try these things at home!!![/red]