Grucci picture 1984

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In this Grucci picture from 1984 we can see their logo is still same today.
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Article from 1984 Grucci Fireworks
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Published: May 4, 1984
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CENTER MORICHES, L.I., May 3— Despite the objections of nearby residents, a bulldozer started setting up a 10-million-pound earthen wall this morning around a new storage and assembly area to replace the Grucci fireworks factory that exploded in Bellport in November.

Work on the fortress-like wall began less than seven hours after the Brookhaven Town Zoning Board of Appeals voted to give the Grucci family permission temporarily to relocate parts of their old fireworks plant here on an isolated sand and gravel pit.

The Bellport factory and storage area, 10 miles west of here, was leveled in November by explosions whose cause has not been determined. Two members of the Grucci family were killed in the accident and 24 people, including residents of the area, were injured.

The blasts damaged homes miles from the center of the fireworks factory and was heard by people in this community, including residents of the Cedar Lodge Nursing Home. Residents and officials of the nursing home have opposed the factory's relocation to their neighborhood. 'No Safe Firecracker'

''There's no such thing as a safe firecracker,'' said Betty Collins, who is 74 years old and restricted to a wheelchair. ''I don't want to be blown up. We're not in any position to help ourselves or defend ourselves. With a powder keg under our beds, nobody will sleep.''

The Appeals Board gave the Gruccis permission to relocate here after eight hours of bitter public debate in which expert witnesses for the company testified that the plant would not endanger people living or working nearby.

''It's not dangerous,'' said Felix Grucci Jr. ''We're going to have millions of pounds of dirt and earth barricading a few thousand pounds of fireworks. We know it works and that it's safe. We've run tests.''

Mr. Grucci said the concern - the New York Pyrotechnic Products Company - an institution in this part of eastern Long Island, would use the site to store a maximum of 60,000 pounds of fireworks, or - the equivalent of 6,000 pounds of high explosives. 15-Inch Shells in Area

The fireworks, ranging from small devices to 15-inch aerial shells, will be kept in eight containers. Each container will be isolated from the others by a 10-foot-high earthen wall. The larger wall will surround the entire area, as will a fence.

The containers will be located at the northernmost edge of the sand and gravel pit, near the line separating Center Moriches and East Moriches. The pit is bordered by acres of isolated pine trees to the north, but a Lutheran church, the 100-bed nursing home and a machine shop are on its southern edge.

Mr. Grucci welcomed the ground- breaking as an end to months of uncertainty for the fireworks company. He said construction of the temporary storage area will allow the company to meet its commitments to stage shows for Fourth of July celebrations and the closing of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles this summer.

''It allows us to get through the Fourth of July season, which is 80 percent of our revenues,'' he said. ''If we couldn't do that it would be like a major department store missing the Christmas season. It would be hard to make up during the rest of the year.'' Permanent Site Sought

Mr. Grucci said the family has found what it hopes will be a permanent site for the plant in the Town of Brookhaven, although he declined to reveal the exact location. He said the company did not move there immediately because the site would require a change of zoning from residential to industrial.

Many people who live and work near the factory site here said the town should not have allowed the company to relocate to the area - even temporarily.

They said it was impossible to ensure that there would not be another explosion and that people at the nursing home would be frightened by the testing of the explosives.

''How can they guarantee that this won't happen again,'' said Regina Spadafora, nursing director at the Cedar Lodge Nursing Home. ''This building shook from the Bellport explosion. The patients were frightened. Court Challenge Considered

Mrs. Spadafora said the noise from tests could send some sick patients into convulsions and would scare others. ''I've come through two world wars and I don't want to go through another,'' said Doris Somers, who is 88 years old and lives in the nursing home. ''What do we need with fireworks?'' Homeowners near the Bellport factory, some of whom are still rebuilding from the explosions in November, also said they opposed the move even though they would be far from any future explosions. They said they were considering a court challenge.

''I feel it's a moral issue,'' said John Williams, whose house on Maple Avenue sustained more than $100,000 damage. ''I wouldn't want my parents in that nursing home. I feel empathy for the Gruccis and their plight, but I don't think they should put dangerous explosives on that site. It doesn't make sense.''

Mr. Williams and other homeowners on his street, which suffered the most damage from the explosions, have formed a group called the Coalition for Public Safety to oppose the Gruccis' plans to rebuild. The group represents 150 families in the Bellport area, he said.

''I don't trust the Gruccis any longer,'' he said. ''I used to. But not now. They could bury it in 50 feet of sand and I wouldn't buy it. This isn't over for us. It's just the beginning of a new battle.''

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Nov. 27, 1983. NEW YORK PYROTECHNIC PRODUCTS CO. INC. (GRUCCI FIREWORKS), Bellport, N.Y. Two killed, 24 injured.

Explosion destroyed the Long Island factory and destroyed or damaged 155 homes in the surrounding residential community.

There were 26 buildings located on the 16.4-acre plant site.

Seventeen were in the manufacturing portion and nine storage magazines were isolated from the main plant by distances of 300 feet to 600 feet and two earth mounds.

About 2,500 pounds to 2,900 pounds of black powder were distributed throughout the magazines. Undisclosed quantities of detonating devices also were being stored at the time under a Defense Department contract.

Nine buildings, 14 trailers used to store finished fireworks, two trucks, one van, and two automobiles were demolished by the blast, and six buildings were damaged. OSHA said two large storage buildings, one made of concrete block, "virtually disappeared."

On the morning of the blast, two employees were completing work in the assembly building on what OSHA described as "bombs." A series of initial explosions generated a "large white mushroom cloud with fireworks exploding inside," the NFPA report says. About 45 seconds to 56 seconds from the initial explosions, a detonation occurred, which caused damage to buildings within a 2,000-foot radius of the plant, the report says.

Ten minutes after the first set of explosions, the last of the explosions occurred and fires burned through the manufacturing and storage portions of the plant.

One of the nine magazines was heavily damaged by the blast, but none of the black powder stored in that magazine exploded, which saved the remaining magazines from destruction.

A large portion of the damages to residences involved broken windows and cracks in ceilings and walls, the NFPA report says. But 32 properties had structural damage exceeding $10,000 each.

The ATF report says that agency could not determine the blast origin.

The NFPA said two critical factors in the blast were the combination of the lack of adequate separation of the buildings, trailers and vehicles, coupled with the quantity of powder loaded in each which permitted the series of explosions and fires.

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Published: November 29, 1983
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BELLPORT, L.I., Nov. 28— In this small village of 3,000, everyone knows a Grucci.

''Oh sure, they're big here,'' said James Economou, ''they have the best name here.'' As Mr. Economou spoke, his hair was being cut by Jim Grucci Jr., manager of the Grucci barber shop. Before Jim, his father, Jim Sr., cut Mr. Economou's hair and before that, the grandfather, Michael Grucci, did.

One Grucci or another owns the local hairdresser's, the television and radio shop, the deli and the restaurant near Montauk Highway.

So on Saturday when the factory belonging to the most famous Bellport Grucci of all - Felix Grucci Sr., an internationally known fireworks pioneer - exploded, killing two family members, injuring two dozen neighbors and seriously damaging more than 100 homes, the village was united in its sadness.

''I feel terrific sympathy for the Gruccis,'' said John Williams, who was a leader in the recent zoning battle to remove the Grucci fireworks factory from the residential neighborhood. ''It's not the Gruccis' fault. They're businessmen. I feel for them. They lost a son.''

Mr. Williams's sympathetic words were interrupted by a Town of Brookhaven building inspector who asked to examine his damaged house. ''You can if you want,'' said Mr. Williams. ''The insurance company says it's totaled.''

It will be a long time before this tiny middle-class and working-class village on the southern shore of Long Island returns to normal. Right now Bellport is about as abnormal as it has ever been. A dozen Federal, state and local officials in suits and trenchcoats spent the day walking in and out of the boarded-up houses along Maple Avenue, adjoining the plant site, cataloging the damage.

Teachers at Kraemer Street Elementary School had the children write essays entitled ''The Gruccis' Explosion.'' The principal, Daniel Koch, sent a memo to all teachers encouraging them to let the children talk about their fears.

Insurance adjusters like Clark Mason took pictures of the damage for the home office. ''There's a wall stud split in half,'' said Mr. Mason, sharing his photos with a visitor. ''There's where a roof lifted an inch. Here's where a foundation moved. That's just another broken window.''

At the cordoned-off 13-acre factory site, Suffolk County Detective Sgt. Anthony Puzzo, an arson specialist, tried to figure out what had caused the blast. ''Sequence is everything, sequence,'' he said. If he could figure out which of the several sheds that blew up went first, he explained, he would know how it all began.

''Usually on a bomb investigation you look for evidence of explosives and that gives you your clue,'' he said. ''But here, there's explosives everywhre. Taking soil samples is ridiculous.''

Part of a trailer building had blown on top of a shed site, Sergeant Puzzo said, so he knew the shed had blown away first, and the trailer had come down afterward.

Two 18-foot-long trailer trucks - one filled with explosives for Disney World - had blown up and the remains were at a 90-degree angle to each other, he continued. ''This tells us that the northernmost truck blew up first, forcing the one going to Disney World away at an angle.''

''Sequence,'' he repeated. ''Sequence is the key.''

Witnesses were not very reliable about describing what happened, he said. ''The problem is the disarray of the human factor. Some people are saying seconds when others are saying minutes.''

At the end of each day, the Federal Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and the Suffolk police detectives, chemists and arson experts meet to try to come up with theories of what happened.

''You say what you found, and we see if we can come up with something,'' said Sergeant Puzzo. ''We've never really had a major explosion in Suffolk County before this one.''

Three Grucci workers stood outside the plant, watching the trucks marked ''dangerous'' move unusable explosives to other sites to be buried.

''We make bombs,'' said James Coleman, 52 years old, a Grucci cousin. Firework aerial bombs, he meant. ''We shot all over the U.S.''

''We shot the Brooklyn Bridge,'' said Vincent Carrella, one of the few among the 20 workers at the plant who is not a relative.

''I climbed the bridge for that one,'' said James Lillie. ''I thought that was dangerous.''

The Gruccis were in the process of negotiating contracts for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans and the Statue of Liberty's 100th anniversary in 1986.

''Who knows now,'' said Mr. Lillie. ''We're going down to the unemployment and then we're going to the funeral.''

Felix Grucci Sr., 78, may have won the international prize for fireworks displays in Monte Carlo a few years ago, he may have used his grand explosions to entertain presidents and kings, but he still lives in a modest green aluminum-sided home on a busy road just outside the village center.

''Felix Grucci could buy this whole block if he wanted to,'' said a family friend, Larry Jennings, who was standing in the rain outside the home. ''But that's not his style.''

He built up his factory - really not much more than a collection of sheds - over 50 years of teaching himself the business, Mr. Jennings said. ''Maybe a half dozen firms in the world are in the giant spectacular business like the Gruccis,'' Mr. Jennings said. ''But they're still basically a mom and pop operation.''

One of the two victims, Mr. Grucci's 42-year-old son, James, is to be buried Wednesday. The other victim, Donna Gruber, a 19-year-old Grucci cousin, is to be buried Tuesday.

Since the explosion, the family has had many talks about whether to continue in the business. ''The decision was made Sunday night to rebuild,'' said Mr. Jennings. ''Probably not on the same spot.''

Just then, the Rev. Generio Spagina, the family priest, came out the front door, leading Felix Grucci by the hand. The priest had often traveled with the family to shows in the past, to pray for safe explosions.

Father Jerry, as the family calls him, was taking the eldest Grucci to visit his wife, who entered the hospital with chest pains after the explosions. In his raincoat and black-and- white baseball hat, the family patriarch looked small.

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Grucci, A Truly Historic Dynasty by Michael Richards

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