Safety First in Boston

"It's a lot of paperwork," says Lieutenant Kevin McDonnough of the Boston City Fire Department. McDonnough works in the special hazards office, which handles the licensing and permits for fireworks displays in Boston. Any possible fireworks event must go through McDonnough first. In 1999, Boston hosted a record number of displays. There was the Major League Baseball all-star game, a SeaPort festival, the annual Harbor Fest, the Fourth of July, and a larger-than-usual number of requests for fireworks during the city's millennium First Night celebrations. Each fall, when the contract for the Fourth of July fireworks has been awarded to the winning bidder, that company calls McDonnough to get a copy of his handbook. In it, pyrotechnicians will find that they have to petition the state fire marshal for a permit to bring fireworks into the state, another to transport them within the state, and a third to bring them into Boston. The third permit requires the company to schedule an approved route through the city that doesn't endanger its inhabitants or the city's infrastructure. And that's just the beginning.

The fireworks company must also file certificates of competency and provide proof of a state bond insurance binder. Then they must petition for a marine permit from the U.S. Coast Guard, since the display will be fired from the Charles River. After that, they file a safety plan that meets OSHA standards. In its petition to the fire department, the company must provide a detailed itinerary of everything that will happen from the moment the fireworks enter the state until the last moment of cleanup. The plan has to include the way the company intends to get the fireworks onto the barges, since open explosives aren't allowed to pass under any bridges that cross the Charles River.

The company must also provide a fireworks inventory, a description of their size and composition, a map of the proposed site, and diagrams of the mortars showing how they'll be spaced, where they'll be placed on the barges, where the barges will be in the river, and where the crew members will be standing, as well as a list of safety gear the crew member will be wearing. The company must even contact the FAA and request a notice to pilots that the fireworks display is happening. "We basically file a map of where and when we're going to send up the fireworks, and Logan Airport will change runways," says Ken Clark, owner of Pyrotechnology, Inc., the company that put on Boston's Fourth of July firework display from 1983 to 1999. "Smaller aircraft are issued a pilot's advisory telling them not to go into the area. Otherwise, they'd love to fly right through it." All of this has to take place before the fire department even grants its permit.

"It's quite a process," says McDonnough, who admits that some companies trying to schedule smaller displays in Boston have balked at all the requirements. "Some people question why we think of these things. We have to make sure that everyone goes home after an event. And if you see people doing things not in accordance to the standard, you have to growl at them." Sometimes, the fire department refuses a permit, but that doesn't happen with the Fourth of July fireworks because only the most prestigious companies vie for the contract.

"The paperwork gets worse every year," admits Richard MacDonald, co-producer of Boston's Fourth of July event. But he's not complaining. "We meet all of the requirements. We have a history with the area and with the event. We make sure that the local agencies get to tour the barges, and we schedule meetings before and after the event to discuss what went right and what went wrong." Usually, the smaller displays face more crises than the larger ones.

"You have a lot of people in this business who are hobbyists," says Guy Colonna, chief chemical and marine engineer for NFPA. "They've dabbled in the chemistry of explosion behavior because they think fireworks are neat. They may have had a mentor for a number of years. Then, when their mentor retires, they take over the business, without having had any formalized training or licensing."

Colonna says the biggest mistake some communities make is not hiring experienced or licensed operators to conduct their fireworks display. Experienced operators are required because so many things can go wrong. The shells can explode prematurely as they're being loaded into the mortars. Moisture contamination during a summer thunderstorm or from high humidity can make the gunpowder unstable. A tiny percentage of shells can explode as they leave the mortar in what pyrotechnicians call a "muzzle break" or a "muzzle burst." The larger the shell, the more likely this is to happen, and no one knows why.

In the past, muzzle breaks have caused mortars to tip over and disturb other mortars, sometimes causing them to fire into the crowd rather than the sky. "A couple of years ago, [outside of Boston] a shell was fired into a crowd and caused a fatality," says Colonna. That city hadn't hired a licensed operator, and the operator didn't follow NFPA 1123, Outdoor Display of Fireworks. That incident was one of the reasons members of the NFPA Pyrotechnics Committee wanted to strengthen the section of the code dealing with mortar rack design for the 2000 edition. Boston's Fourth of July display, by contrast, is a high-tech event involving mortars fired electrically from a remote location. The timing of the shells is controlled entirely by a computer program that fires them so they punctuate the music being piped out to the crowd. The computer responds to a time code on an unheard track of the music, sending a radio signal to the barges that fire the fuses in a certain order. This technology is a far cry from most displays that take place in smaller communities around the country.

Still, experts agree the one thing all successful displays have in common is attention to detail. Careful planning, like that demanded by the Boston Fire Department, can help communities avoid tragic incidents during what would otherwise be a wonderful community event. In Boston, that careful planning begins the moment the pyrotechnicians choose the fireworks they'll use.

The Charles River is 2,000 feet (610 meters) across at its widest point. According to the tables of distances in NFPA 1123, the largest shell that can be used in a fallout area of that size is 12 inches (30 centimeters) in diameter.

Clark notes that a 12-inch shell is the largest he's ever used in that location. If he wants a bigger effect, he prefers to use a number of smaller shells in combination. In his land-based displays, he'd rather use smaller shells, as well. "Most people don't realize that, with the table of distances required by NFPA, the 3-inch (8-centimeter) shell can look just as big as a 12-inch shell (30-centimeter) because the crowd can stand so much closer to the display," he says.

In fact, the Boston Fourth of July display this year won't use any 12-inch shells. "Most people don't know how big a 12-inch shell is supposed to look. With new NFPA requirements in the works, it's in our best interest to go down to a 10-inch (25-centimeter) shell," says Richard MacDonald. "On New Year's Eve, the operators used 3-inch (8-centimeter) shells for the display on the Boston Common. We realized then that you don't need huge shells to make a big impact." Once the shells have come into the city on their approved route, they're put into a sealed container to protect them from theft, tampering, and moisture. The sealed containers are then loaded into a ferry that travels along the Charles River to the four waiting barges. At this point, technicians have already set up the racks and mortars, but they don't unseal the explosives or load the mortars until four days before the display. "It takes that long to load the mortars and wire them," says Clark.

For land-based displays, many operators sink large mortars in the ground to give them stability against the force of the charge used to fire the rockets. Clark must bury his large mortars in drums filled with sand. In the past, Clark has used 80 tons (73 metric tons) of sand to stabilize the larger mortars on the barges.

During the four or five days the technicians need to load and wire the electrical fuses, a pyrotechnician is on board the barge at all times. When the crew leaves at night, a police patrol takes over. They watch and protect the site from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. when the technicians come back. The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) sets up protective buoys 250 feet (76 meters) around the barges.

As display time approaches, police and MDC officers post warnings, tellings boaters to avoid the area. On the day before the display, officers move the buoys out to a distance of 840 feet (256 meters) on all sides to mark the shell fallout area. At this point, police boats step up their search for people trying to sneak up to the barges. Every year, someone in a canoe or raft tries to row past them into the restricted area. "They think they can get a better view that way," says Clark with some dismay. "They'd hook right up to the barges if we'd let them."

The barges are set up to form a T-pattern, with two sitting out front and one behind. Clark also uses a spacer barge, so that he and his technicians can launch the fireworks from 200 feet (61 meters) away.

In smaller displays, where the operators fire the rockets manually, mortars are often reused. However, that can pose a safety hazard if an unexploded shell ignites as the operator is loading another shell. Another danger is a low or slow explosive that could send sparks into an open box of unfired shells. Clark's crew uses electrical firing, which means each shell has its own mortar. All the shells have been pre-loaded, and although it's more expensive to pre-load, Clark believes the safety advantages outweigh the cost.

Clark uses a crew of 20 to set up the display, but only 5 or 6 people are on the barge during firing. "Everybody else goes to shore to watch it," he says. Even though Clark and his crew sit 200 feet (61 meters) away from the mortars, they still have to wear hard hats, safety goggles, cotton clothing, and life preservers. In addition, the ferry has to be equipped with life preservers, safety ropes, portable fire extinguishers, rings, and a ladder in the event someone falls overboard. If McDonnough feels that these regulations aren't being met, he'll contact OSHA to have some inspectors come out on the site. During the display, the operators can't look up at the exploding shells overhead. Instead, they have to concentrate on the firing sequence. They watch for tipped mortars and misfired shells, so they can reprogram the computer and change the display instantly for safety reasons. The rest of the crew acts as spotters from shore. They can radio information to Clark about wind changes or an odd shell trajectory that would require moving the barges to maintain the right fallout area. "That's another advantage of a barge display over a land display," says Clark. "We can change the site to accommodate a change in the weather."

"By moving a display to water, you're removing the safety concern for the crowd. The primary concern is with protecting the workers," says Guy Colonna. Lt. McDonnough agrees. "With a land display, it's tough to move the crowd when the wind shifts, he says. "You have to be tricky with designing an area and approving it. You have to make it large enough so that people will still be safe if the wind changes." If the wind seems especially strong, the crew will sometimes fire a test shell before the display to check the effects. Although Clark has a set of spotters looking for trouble, the Boston Fire Department sends a squad of special hazard officers to supervise the display, as well. Immediately after the show ends, technicians board the barges with flashlights to check each mortar for unexploded shells. These must be carefully removed and repackaged so they can be sent back to the manufacturers the next day. All of this must be done according to Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) and Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations.

The crew then closes up the area and leaves around 1 a.m. That night, while the crew sleeps, the barges make their way back to East Boston. The next morning, the crew returns to pack up the mortars, racks, and sand. If everything has gone according to plan—and it almost always does—the crew can go home knowing they provided a great deal of entertainment to a half-million people without a single injury.

Michelle Seaton is a regular contributor to NFPA Journal.

© 1999-2000, NFPA