Carolina Pyros General

All Members, please find attached copy of the Club's Formal Safety Plan, which was adopted by your board at our first 2021 Board Meeting.

This is a broad overview that covers most safety aspects as found in the NFPA codes relating to all outdoor displays, professional or otherwise. The first statement on this document does highlight the fact that this was originally created for a Professional Display Company, but that does not mean that we, as a "Club" have any exemptions from any of the rules and regulations pertaining to the operation of our activities.

Safety has to come first! We fully expect all of our members who want to participate in shooting fireworks (or merely being a spectator) to comply with the guidelines, as we want to try our best to insure that we adhere to safe practices in order to protect everyone.

I would like to take just a minute to comment on using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). This is a big issue, and at our past gatherings, there has been a real shortage of persons who actually use PPE. Some of you may think that this may be a bit silly, but having been involved first hand with a few fireworks incidents, let me tell you right now that without the use of protective equipment, there would have been much more serious injuries!

As a Club, we are also not exempt from litigation that will arise, should we suffer some form of accident that results in someone getting seriously hurt. Right now, there is a case going on with another Club in the USA, where there was pretty bad injury (from a 1.4G item!) to a spectator, and the entire membership is being sued for damages, as the attorneys representing the injured member, are going after everyone, because the CLUB doesn't have the money that they are seeking for damages. This is VERY SERIOUS STUFF folks, and we ALL KNOW that accidents can and do happen.

Another safety item that the Board discussed, is that we have the right to inspect all materials that are brought in to our club events, and we will reserve the right to prohibit the firing of materials that we deem to be dangerous. For example, at our last event we allowed a number of cakes that had gotten wet at another show somewhere to be fired, and most of those did not function as they were supposed to. This will not happen again. If you have faulty, damaged, wet, or materials that are otherwise defective, please let us know, as we do have resources to take these materials off site to be properly destroyed.

This also brings us to the matter of "HOT" materials. The PGI, for many years, sort of turned a bind eye to the 1.4G vendors who brought in the bootleg, overloaded materials. A couple of years back (and I was there!), the very first night of open "Class C" shooting, it sounded like a "salute fest"! Many of the members knew just where to go, and one of the reasons they attend the PGI was to load up on all of these "Hot" items. The big issue here is that the PGI (and US, as our CLUB) are the ones who would be held liable, should there arise an incident that involves these types of materials. it comes down to "Culpability" in the law - if we know that this is going on, and we don't do anything about it, then we are responsible, period.

As an example, The Maximum load in a Flash salute rocked is 325 milligrams. We discovered rockets with well over a full ounce (30 grams) of Flash in the header! Now, suppose somebody bought a bunch of these rockets, and then took them home, and a week or two later fired one, and blew their hand off - the FACT is, that because they bought this at an event like the PGI, or the Carolina Pyros, or wherever - the "Culpability" factor brings the liability to the holder of that event, not to the vendor! The vendor would certainly be involved, but that is secondary.

I do not want to be the "Safety Nazi" here, but I do implore all of you to heed this. We have worked hard to create this club for all fireworks lovers and enthusiasts, and it will only take ONE serious incident, that results in an injury, to bring this all to an end.

We always have some cakes and shells that do malfunction, either by not firing completely, or blowing a tube out, or a low break, or whatever. In most cases, where we are adhering to the safe set up, securing cakes properly, and etc., usually this is not a huge deal. BUT we have also seen where errant shells can and do fly out Into the spectators, comets and crossettes that burn all the way back to the ground all over the place! So, we HAVE to take as many safety precautions as we can, in order to minimize, as best we can, any negative consequences.

The "Grid" system that Mike set up for us last year for the open shooting did work out pretty well. We want to insure that there is plenty of room for each person shooting their stuff. We also want to limit the number of persons in the firing areas at any one time, so we don't wind up with way too many people wandering around, not paying attention to what else is going on next to them. This is just common sense.

Be prepared, please bring your PPE with you, Safety Glasses, Hearing protection, Head protection, and if you are manually firing anything, then you will need long sleeves, and long legged pants COTTON, minimum, as well as LEATHER footwear.

As we get into the firework season, it is important that all of you start thinking about safety. If you see somebody doing something that you feel may be unsafe, SAY SOMETHING!

I have been in the fireworks business for longer than some of you have been alive, now 37 years, and I have seen some really gnarly, gruesome, ugly things, that in 90% of those cases could have been avoided by following a few, simple, easy safety rules.

Jeff Hale, CP Safety Director