31 replies to this topic

[ProfHawking]

I fired a display this weekend, and on the whole things went very well.
However, it could have been quite different. As part of the finale, i had 4 large salute cakes, one of which fired about 20 of its 100 comet/salutes before ripping itself apart.

this was the culprit: Imperial Warlord, from NG fireworks, part of Cosmic.


and this is what it ended up like: (click for big)



Particularly worrying is that there were live loose tubes on the ground, easily capable of firing off randomly and causing serious harm im sure.

However, something good to be said for the cake design is that they didnt fire. The fuse running through the tubes was not a single length, as im sure many are?? but a series of little lengths.
This meant that the tubes flung clear were not still burning in this case.

I dont know what i could have done differently to prevent it, and i guess it happened as safely as possible. However it was a little worrying!! I wouldnt like to be hand-firing next to anything thats gonna do that anytime soon.

Has anyone else experienced this happening, or is it a real rare thing?

Is it worth contacting the retailer? or doing anything different in future?

[Richard H]

I would contact the retailer immediately. If the whole batch is doing that then they certainly are not meeting BS7114. As for flack in the heat of battle, you soon get used to it.

I've had a 2.5" maroon cake blow a load of maroons all around me once, nearly turned my blue boilersuit a shade of brown after that episode!

[pyrotrev]

Yes it does happen from time to time, which is why we have safety distances!!! I often put a board on the audience side of any pokey cakes just in case.

[EnigmaticBiker]

That is scary.

Well worth contacting the retailer, not only for replacement/refund. They need to know the batch may be faulty.

Do you still have the remnants of the cake? Date or coding information?

I'd love to do a post mortem on it.

A weak tube or possibly jammed salute?

Hope it doesn't happen too often.

[ProfHawking]

Yes it does happen from time to time, which is why we have safety distances!!! I often put a board on the audience side of any pokey cakes just in case.

Yeah, board would have worked. Even just a plank staked along its edge to stop anything that is lying on the ground. Might do that next time if i can, but its just more and more clobber to take along init.

That is scary.

Well worth contacting the retailer, not only for replacement/refund. They need to know the batch may be faulty.

Do you still have the remnants of the cake? Date or coding information?

I'd love to do a post mortem on it.

A weak tube or possibly jammed salute?

Hope it doesn't happen too often.

The tube that actually caused the failure is long gone. Only scraps of shredded cardboard were left. I have kept the rest of the non-ignited tubes. Some are damaged by the blast and will have to be distroyed. The others i may use myself or something.
I opened up one of the damaged ones, and everything seemed to be in order.
I think the tube that blew was on the end of a row, so its possible it was damaged in transit or something and i didnt notice. But i kinda doubt it. It would be more likely to be the corner ones if it was dropped, and there wasnt any apparent damage that i had noticed.
It could also have been caused if the tube had blocked somehow, or if there wasnt any lift in the tube, or the casing on the salute failed in the tube i suppose.
Not sure.
I popped an email off to cosmic, as they had an email address on their rather empty http://www.cosmicfireworks.com/
but it got rejected and sent back to me. They need a new webmaster!

Anyway, i will contact the retailer as well i suppose. Unfortunately, i have no outer packageing with any dates/batch stamps on, even if they did have them to begin with. Didnt think about that at the time...

[EnigmaticBiker]

I think the tube that blew was on the end of a row, so its possible it was damaged in transit or something and i didnt notice. But i kinda doubt it. It would be more likely to be the corner ones if it was dropped, and there wasnt any apparent damage that i had noticed.
It could also have been caused if the tube had blocked somehow, or if there wasnt any lift in the tube, or the casing on the salute failed in the tube i suppose.
Not sure.
I popped an email off to cosmic, as they had an email address on their rather empty http://www.cosmicfireworks.com/
but it got rejected and sent back to me. They need a new webmaster!

Anyway, i will contact the retailer as well i suppose. Unfortunately, i have no outer packageing with any dates/batch stamps on, even if they did have them to begin with. Didnt think about that at the time...

I'll be surprised if you don't get a refund, at least.

The pictures are good and part of the logo is just about visible on the ones you posted.

Tell them you've posted on this esteemed and influential web forum with hundreds, no, thousands of potential customers waiting with baited breath for the outcome of this terrible incident...

You never know, they might be generous.

[ProfHawking]

haha
isnt that called blackmail or something?

I will give them a ring. i dont think they are a "web-savvy" supplier, or a very big one, so i doubt much could be gained. Better to go direct to cosmic as well i think.

[EnigmaticBiker]

haha
isnt that called blackmail or something?

I will give them a ring. i dont think they are a "web-savvy" supplier, or a very big one, so i doubt much could be gained. Better to go direct to cosmic as well i think.

Not blackmail, consumer power.
Threatening them to extort more than they owe you would be (any legal people out there to correct me?).

Whilst I hate the march of the litigious society, complaining sometimes reaps benefits, a good company will value the information to correct a fault rather than lose custom.

Then again, if you were really, really traumatised and just too upset after the failure of the cake, questioning your ability to do pyro, nightmares, etc I'm sure there's a lawyer out there (and many loads thousands in the USA) who would be happy to oblige (Messrs Sue, Grabbit and Runne in UK, of course).

[ProfHawking]

haha
"..really traumatised and just too upset after the failure of the cake, questioning your ability to do pyro, nightmares, etc"
would have to have actually been sitting on the cake for that to happen i think.

also, i got a reply from cosmic in the end. but their QC guy is on holiday so they will keep me posted apparently

Edited by ProfHawking, 30 August 2006 - 10:51 PM.

[Spyrotechnics]

I hope you have contacted the retailer as well as contacting Cosmic??

the retailer needs to know asap to make informed decisions about his stock


Stuart

[EnigmaticBiker]

haha
"..really traumatised and just too upset after the failure of the cake, questioning your ability to do pyro, nightmares, etc"
would have to have actually been sitting on the cake for that to happen i think.

also, i got a reply from cosmic in the end. but their QC guy is on holiday so they will keep me posted apparently

Good, at least they got back to you reasonably quickly.

[adamw]

"The QC guy is on holiday" isn't really good enough. There should be someone who can make the appropriate decision. Remember we are talking maroon cakes here!

[tartanmack]

[q]

Hi from a new member,
I see you had the device staked out, was there no instructions to bury part of the way 3/4 length? this would proberbly secured the device more firmly and prevented it from blowing apart as the outer covers are more for show than security of device.

If I cant bury cakes barrages etc, I tend to stake the device and then secure it with a couple of wraps of duct tape which seems to do the job

as I say new member so I dont want to step on anyones toes just trying to be helpful

[Reb]

[q]

If I cant bury cakes barrages etc, I tend to stake the device and then secure it with a couple of wraps of duct tape which seems to do the job

as I say new member so I dont want to step on anyones toes just trying to be helpful

Hi,
I am a new member also, and had an "imperial warlord" this year too!
Thankfully all of our fireworks went off ok, including the imperial warlord (one hundred really loud air b**bs, oops reports).

I didn't stake ours, I used four plastic rubble sacks, filled with soft damp (heavy) soil. one wedged in firmly on each side.
I also staked a steel plate approx 2ft 6" long x 18inches high in front of it (as i do with all the large / powerfull items).

I find the rubble sacks are great for fanned cakes (they assume the shape of the wedged ends very well).
I also don't want to tread on any toes, just sharing the way I do things.

I did have two dud fireworks last year, 1 skymonkey, and one armaggedon (500 shot).

The sky monkey did not go off at all, the fuse was in half and only burnt the first bit!
And the armaggedon did the first 4 shots and stopped dead !

Thankfully my local retailer is excellent, I took both back the next day, and showed him both for inspection.
After twenty seconds of looking at them, he said " well, I can give you a straight refund, OR (with a smile on his face) double the value in fireworks" I WONDER WHAT I CHOSE ?

The retailer may not be the cheapest around (they are not the dearest either) but with that kind of nice attitude why would I go anywere else?

"to the original poster"
I wish you luck with cosmic, and your retailer.
regards
Reb

Edited by Reb, 13 December 2006 - 04:23 AM.

[EnigmaticBiker]

Thankfully my local retailer is excellent, I took both back the next day, and showed him both for inspection.
After twenty seconds of looking at them, he said " well, I can give you a straight refund, OR (with a smile on his face) double the value in fireworks" I WONDER WHAT I CHOSE ?

The retailer may not be the cheapest around (they are not the dearest either) but with that kind of nice attitude why would I go anywere else?

Excellent response from the retailer, after all it's probably not his fault they failed.

I'm guessing they wouldn't mind being identified here.

Consumer power again.