Spectators who typically line Minard Run Road for the Pennhills
Club’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display will not be able to
view them from the road this year, according to the club’s general
manager Kevin Mosher.
Due to a dramatic reduction in Chinese imported fireworks,
Zambelli Fireworks Internationale, the company that supplies
Pennhills for its show, was unable to provide the same fireworks to
the club as it has in the past.
Mosher said that certain types of fireworks are harder to locate
than others, especially those that launch above 1,000 feet.
“This year’s fireworks display will be just as spectacular,” he
said. “They just won’t be visible from outside the Club’s own
grounds. This will make it especially difficult for the residents
and visitors alongside Minard Run Road to enjoy the show as in the
past.”
Zambelli maintains a year to year stockpile of fireworks, which
is how they can provide fireworks to their customers, but stricter
inspection standards, fewer Chinese shipping ports and the Beijing
Olympics have greatly limited the amount of firework imports
compared with past years.
A Feb. 14 explosion at the Chinese port city of Sanshui
destroyed 20 warehouses and prompted officials to close all but one
port that exports fireworks. China has also adopted stricter
inspection standards in the wake of the explosion, further slowing
exports to the United States.
“I think limiting the number of ports and imposing more
stringent inspections was simply an enforcement issue,” said Sandy
McStay, assistant to the president of Zambelli. “As long as the
fireworks are only coming out of one port, they are easier to
check.”
McStay didn’t know what percentage of the company’s fireworks
are imported from China, but acknowledged it was a large
portion.
“There are almost no fireworks made (in America) relative to the
total amount that are displayed here,” she said. “There are
domestic manufacturers that have clearances to make fireworks but
they usually only produce product for their area shows.”
Zambelli, one of the largest fireworks distributors in America,
shoots roughly 500 to 600 shows in more than 30 states over the
Fourth of July weekend.
According to a press release from the company, it has received a
flood of calls from towns it has never served because the town’s
normal supplier could not produce the fireworks due to the Chinese
choke point.
The Pennhills Club isn’t the only area display that has
shouldered the burden of fewer imports. The Olean, N.Y., display
held each year at Bradner Stadium was also affected, said Lt. Ed
Jennings of the City of Olean Fire Department.
“We’ve had some small issues,” he said. “It’s harder to get the
bigger shells, but we filled that void with other types of
fireworks.”
Jennings was confident the Bradner display will be as good as
past years because they “only have a couple of banks of trees to
clear” so the smaller shells won’t have much of an impact.
According to an article in the May 18 issue of The New York
Times, only 60 percent of the normal amount of exported fireworks
are leaving China this year.
