St. Pete Beach July Fourth fireworks show canceled; makeup shows promised

ST. PETE BEACH — Dusk came and went on the Fourth of July but the skies off Upham Beach remained dark.

After more than an hour, police and fire officials told the thousands of people gathered to watch a promised $20,000 fireworks display to go home.

The reason was not the weather, which had cleared enough for fireworks to explode with bright and colorful displays in the skies of neighboring south Pinellas cities.

Instead, it was human error. The gaffe disappointed a city and embarrassed a company that has spent 120 years designing fireworks shows for cities, major resorts, corporations, sports teams and even a Super Bowl.

On July 9, a producer with the company that designed the Upham Beach fireworks show for this year apologized profusely to the city for a "tactical mistake" that forced the cancellation of the city's show.

"I'm sorry that we failed you so miserably," John Feigert, Pyrotecnico's producer for shows in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, said in a letter to City Manager Mike Bonfield. "There is no excuse for what happened and the fact that it has never occurred in my 30 year history of producing fireworks displays doesn't make it any better."

To make amends, Feigert said, his company will refund the city's $10,000 deposit and provide two free "makeup" shows — one at a time of the city's choosing before the end of the year and the other for the Fourth of July next year.

"This is a black eye for both the City of St. Pete Beach and Pyrotecnico … all the blame lies with us," Feigert said.

According to Feigert, there was "dissension" between the two lead technicians assigned by the company to manage the holiday show.

"It was operator error," Bonfield said. "There were issues with how the show was wired. The Pyrotecnico people tried to get it fixed, but after about an hour, we said forget it."

Bonfield said he received only four or five telephone calls or e-mails complaining about the failed show.

"Everybody understands it was beyond our control," he said.

The aborted show came one year after the city's Fourth of July show was launched from a barge positioned so far off the coastline that people complained they could hardly see the fireworks.

It also came three years after 12 people, including the city's fire chief and fire marshal, were hurt when grand finale fireworks exploded.

In that 2007 incident, 22 windows in the nearby Bon-Aire Resort Motel in St. Pete Beach were shattered and two people were taken to an area hospital for lacerations. A similar explosion during Treasure Island's grand finale display that year did not result in injuries.

The accidents were eventually attributed to the way the Chinese fireworks were manufactured. Apparently a shell that normally sets off the grand finale misfired and detonated while still on the ground.

This year's fireworks were scheduled to be shot off from Upham Beach. People were barred from coming any closer than 100 yards to the north and south of the launch site.

Ironically, because of declining revenues, Bonfield did not budget a fireworks show for next year's Fourth of July.

Now, the city won't have to do without — and residents will get an extra show for free sometime this year.