Fort Worth firefighters eliminate remaining fireworks from canceled Fourth of July show
The Fort Worth Fire Department eliminated the rest of the city’s Fourth of July fireworks in a controlled environment Tuesday after grass fires forced the show to be canceled.
On Monday night, the Fort Worth’s Fourth fireworks event at Panther Island Pavilion was stopped when several grass fires sparked along the banks of the Trinity River minutes after the show began, disappointing many viewers.
Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis said it’s typical for the company responsible for the show to put out small fires.
But the company responsible for the Fort Worth’s Fourth fireworks, San Antonio-based Magic In The Sky, was overwhelmed with the fires as they developed at a faster pace than they could put the flames out, officials said.
Davis said the fires damaged the tubes used to shoot off the fireworks, so the decision was made to cancel the rest of the event.
The firework display, one of the largest in North Texas, had the proper permits and was up to required national standards, he said.
Davis said the department’s first priority was not putting out the grass fires, but protecting the remaining 1,000 firework shells from catching fire.
“Once that was taken care of, then they went about extinguishing the rest of the grass fires along the river,” he said. “That’s the way we pre-plan things like that and we stand by that decision.”
Magic In The Sky owner Jacob Dell said it’s a very rare occurrence to have to cancel a show.
Dell said the program was as safe as it could be and the decision to cancel the show was the best choice for public safety.
Fort Worth and Tarrant County are in a drought with the county’s level between severe and extreme.
Fort Worth firefighters responded to more than 200 grass and brush fire calls during this year’s July 4 holiday as residents set off fireworks across the city. Last year, there were only 17 such calls.
In the case of the professional show, the department decided to eliminate the remaining fireworks by discharging them under controlled circumstances and in a controlled environment.
Beginning at midnight, the department and the company began detonating the remaining fireworks at Panther Island Pavilion. They paused and resumed eliminating the fireworks later Tuesday morning.
Fire department officials said they were preparing for the possibility of a grass fire happening at the event, and the Tarrant Regional Water District, which manages Panther Island, had been mowing and watering the grass.
Davis said he hasn’t had any conversations about changing the location of the show in the future.
Since wetting the ground was not effective in preventing fires, the department said that prescribed burns or grading the dirt to bare ground where fireworks are to be set up might be an option in the future.
This story was originally published July 5, 2022 at 10:45 AM.
