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Boom by the box
Fireworks flash in yard, blast at shows
Friday, July 2, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN
Tom Stockett of Lusby, manager of a fireworks stand along Route 235 in Lexington Park, straightens out his inventory.
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A standard geography of the United States includes a rundown of different states' natural resources, industries and landmarks. In July, it might include what fireworks they sell.
Those are the questions Anthony Humphries of Lusby has been getting the past couple of weeks as he mans a fireworks stand in a trailer set up along Route 235 in Lexington Park. Many of the people stopping by are visitors to Maryland, who are in St. Mary's through some connection to Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
"They live in places where they don't have them [fireworks] as much," Humphries said. "They stop in and find out if we have things that they don't have."
The difference between one state and another is pretty clear to diehard fireworks fans. South Carolina, and now Pennsylvania, sells explosive firecrackers, bottle rockets and mortars. Maryland expanded its list of what's legal in the Free State a couple of years ago, expanding from sparklers and smoking-ash snakes to an array of ground-based sparkling devices. They fizzle and scream, but they don't go "boom," which is what some of the people visiting the stands in Southern Maryland are looking for, in vain.
"People are coming up and asking for bottle rockets and firecrackers," Humphries said.
The fireworks that now are legal in Maryland are sold in small, individual pieces or in big boxes packed with cylindrical, fuse-topped containers, bearing names including "Nuclear Meltdown," "Monster Buster" and "Cracklin' Lazer."
The boxes and prices range from smaller ones for a little backyard fun to chest-sized assortments geared toward entertaining large family gatherings.
"You can go up to $235 for the ones that have everything in them," Humphries said. "They've got enough to hold you."
Humphries' favorites include the smaller fireworks that he remembers from his childhood in Washington, D.C. "I like the little pop-its … the sparklers and the little snakes," he said. "Those are the ones that were around when I was a kid."
Those items also remain popular with other adults looking to provide holiday fun for younger folks, as one of Humphries' first customers exemplified shortly after the stand opened.
"He said his grandchildren are coming to town," Humphries said. "He wanted to have something for them."
Humphries now takes a cue for what's fun in fireworks from his own two daughters, ages 6 and 8.
"I've got little ones, so if they like them, I like them," he said. "They like the ones that go up in the air, if you go to the mall [in the District] or up to North Beach. They're still sort of leery of the ones you see on the ground. That's probably because we tell them to stand back."
Duane Svites, Charles County's volunteer fire chief, said his trips to hospital emergency rooms as a deputy chief fire marshal have shown him direct evidence of what can happen when someone violates Maryland's laws against possessing and igniting explosive fireworks like mortars, firecrackers and bottle rockets.
"I show up there, and I find his hand is missing," Svites said. "When you put explosives in people's hands, that don't know what they're doing, bad things happen. They're dangerous."
Maryland's public safety officials and legislators considered the relative danger of different fireworks, Svites said, in imposing and updating restrictions that are more lenient than some states and more stringent than others.
"Maryland has taken a very conservative approach," he said. "We're trying to save people from hurting themselves."
The people who do suffer or inflict injuries, permanent or otherwise, with illegal fireworks also face judicial penalties, the state investigator said.
"You're going to have an injury and a criminal charge," he said. "If you get caught, and you don't have an injury, you're lucky. You're definitely going to get charged. It's lose-lose. Don't mess with them."
The expansion of Maryland's list of fireworks to include ground-based sparkling fountains carries an expectation of how they'll be used.
"They're not [to be lit while] in your hands," Svites said. "Use them as intended. Don't hold them. Don't get creative. Put them on the ground and walk away."
Svites suggested a family outing to a state-sanctioned professional fireworks show.
"You can go to see a good show in just about any corner of Southern Maryland," he said.
The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs professional baseball club will extend its usual schedule of Friday and Saturday evening fireworks to include a July 4 fireworks show, at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf.
"It's going to be that much more spectacular," said David Riggs, the baseball team's media relations and broadcasting assistant. "It will be a great show for all the fans."
That evening's special activities also will include an umbrella giveaway and a meet-the-team event, plus an auction of players' commemorative jerseys worn that day.
"It should be an incredible show to celebrate the independence of our country," Riggs said.
Backyard fireworks shows can get pretty incredible as well, with "grand finale" boxes that let the host igniter set it and forget it, and enjoy what follows with the rest of the audience.
"They can pack more powder in them, and they last a lot longer" than single pieces, vendor John A. Toohey said at a fireworks stand in Solomons. "There are a lot of different effects in there. There are different phases they go through. You just light that one fuse, and it'll travel through the different tubes."
Toohey acknowledged that the biggest and brightest of sparkling and screaming fountain fireworks won't satisfy some people.
"For the people who were traveling to South Carolina or Pennsylvania, those people will continue to do so," he said. "If you're willing to drive that far to get them, you know a little bit about the difference between what you can get there and what you can get here."
But as long as the Fourth of July is more about a country's patriotism than a scofflaw's pyromania, Toohey and other roadside firework vendors will have a broad customer base.
"I think the people who buy here are more casual buyers. They're for families," he said. "We get a lot of dads here. The moms come by here with the little ones, for the little stuff."
If you want to see — and hear — some big fireworks Southern Maryland provides a full schedule of state-approved and professionally conducted fireworks shows.
Friday, July 2
St. Mary's County
The River Concert Series 2010 at St. Mary's College of Maryland will present its "Summon the Heroes" concert at 7 p.m. this evening, followed by a fireworks show.
Potomac Speedway in Budds Creek will feature fireworks, along with the Ken Dixon Automotive Night stock car races.
Saturday, July 3
Calvert County
The Chesapeake Beach Resort Spa and Hotel, and its Rod 'N' Reel dockside restaurant, will feature a fireworks show, along with a DJ and karaoke in the Smokey Joe's nightclub.
There will be a fireworks display beginning at sunset on the beach in Chesapeake Beach. The Chesapeake Beach Water Park will be open until 10 p.m. for this event.
St. Mary's County
An Independence Day Celebration at the Hollywood Volunteer Fire Department will include a daytime car show, children's games, an evening concert by the band No Green Jelly Beenz and a fireworks show at dusk.
Sunday, July 4
Calvert County
Solomons' annual fireworks display can be viewed from the riverwalk as the projectiles are shot off from a barge in the Patuxent River. Visitors are encouraged to park in designated areas including Glascock Field, where a shuttle bus will be in operation.
Charles County
The Smallwood Village Association will present a fireworks show at Benjamin Stoddert Middle School in Waldorf.
The Town of Indian Head will begin its annual Fourth of July celebration at 3:30 p.m. with a patriotic opening ceremony, to be followed by amusements, live entertainment and fireworks.
The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs professional baseball club presents fireworks every Friday and Saturday evening during its season at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, and a July 4 fireworks show has been added for this weekend. Game time is 7:05 p.m., and there will be an auction of players' jerseys worn that day, an umbrella giveaway and a meet-the-team event.
