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View Full Version : Upside down Excalibur



mguerra
02-15-2014, 05:34 PM
I put on a show Feb. 1 on some rural property my sister secured for the shoot, a friend of hers. I don't know him myself. At the end, I gave him a six pack of Excalibur and some ball shells as part of my thank you. I do know this fellow shoots fireworks himself from time to time. I told him to only use HDPE or fiberglass tubes, and that at the next legal time to buy fireworks, July 4, he should buy some shells that have such tubes. I didn't have any to give him, mine were all in racks. There were some Excalibur tubes in my racks but they all had the square flanges cut off so they were not usable free standing.
We were going to do the clean up the next morning, so we went down to the discharge site, inspected all the cardboard cakes, put out the smoldering ones, and inspected all the racks for any unspent shells. I gathered up my field modules, left all the rest and went to the hotel. The next morning we go down to clean up and it became evident our host wasn't waiting for the Fourth to play with his present. In fact, he decided to use one of my racks after we had all left. Which he destroyed. One of the Excalibur tubes that I had in a rack was blown out, and the corner of the rack was blown apart! The rack still supported the other tubes so I was satisfied with my rack build. No doubt he put one in upside down. You could tell by the downforce damage. It wasn't a bad lift charge. The guy never said a word to me or my sister. He wasn't there Sunday morning, we just went in, cleaned up, and left. He had my number, we spoke in advance about the shoot site, so he could have called me. I won't be going back there.

fatcat
02-15-2014, 05:49 PM
Wow, that is almost akin to giving a stranger a loaded gun. Lesson : Never assume that a person has the knowledge (or ability to read instructions, like TOP) Thanks for reminding all of us to keep control of any of our fireworks devices. Hope nobody got hurt. Would be nice if he called you and offered to pay for any damage and maybe ask you for a few lessons or advice.

mguerra
02-15-2014, 08:25 PM
You can buy fireworks (Excalibur) and walk out and use them with no instructions whatsoever. The guys at the fireworks stand don't sit you down for a tutorial!!!
TOP is labelled as big as Dallas on every Excalibur shell.
This guy had fireworks trash all over the shoot site from his New Years Eve party, including several cardboard mortar tubes. Which I cleaned up, including all the beer cans! We left his place pristine, far cleaner than we found it. So I knew he had used aerial shells before, which ALL have to be loaded top up. And I warned him off of using cardboard mortars. He obviously took that advice! For all I know, he may have done it on purpose just to see what would happen. I'll never know...

Dart
02-15-2014, 11:17 PM
Good thing no one got hurt, avoid giving fireworks to people you suspect drink while using them.