Fireworks continue despite wild fire scares and outages

When business owner Steve Spradlin invited the public to the upcoming 2025 Fireworks Show, July 5 at 9pm, he thought some folks among the crowds might have suspected this year’s display wouldn't happen. Well they were wrong!

Spradlin who organizes the show annually talked to the press about it. "You know, there was some concern, with the wild fires that they’ve (had) this year, everywhere, whether the show was going to go on, or whether being in the Sequoia National Forest, was going to be banned for this year, because of extreme fire danger,” he said.

These poster boards represent donations from donors that gave larger donations at the location.

“But they seemed to think that Engineer's Point, where we have the launch site, is safe for the community and safe for the forest. So they're letting us go forward with it. There's always a concern when there's a chance of starting a forest fire.”

This year's show will be on the Saturday night closest to the Fourth of July. The fireworks show organizers believe it’s easier for visitors to attend and spend the weekend up in the Kern River Valley if the show is on the Saturday closest to Independence Day.

The committee planning the display each year, called Patriotic Americans for Fireworks, makes a typical show in the Kern Valley with shells that range anywhere from three inches to eight inches in diameter.

Spradlin explained that the three-inch shells could typically reach a height of 300 feet. An eight-inch shell can reach a height of 800 feet. Last year the committee added two 10-inch shells thinking they would prove to be more exciting. However Spradlin said those bigger shells didn't prove to be as exciting as the committee hoped. So instead this year the organizers added more five inch and six-inch shells to the show.

"This year the cost went up, as it has, considerably every year, for the last
several years. At the start of COVID it jumped from $25,000 up to $35,000. Last year it was $40,000. And this year it was $44,100."

Spradlin said, "We've got a small committee of three or four people that work real hard to put that together named Mike Smith, Candace from Red Rooster, and
Carla Stumbarter are all on the committee for fundraising. And then we do our Roundup at the pump at the Shells and the True Values in town."

According to Spradlin the Round Up at the Register typically does about 50% of the cost of the show. The fundraiser committee picks up the rest. And then the fundraisers do pretty well with the canisters the committee puts out throughout the community, that normally provide about 10% of the cost of the show.

“Those are out all year round. And we do the round up at the register for the full year. People are very considerate and interested in the fireworks and they'll donate typically every time they come in for the full year, trying to help us out, trying to give a show for the whole community," said Spradlin. "We get thousands and thousands of people here. That's for sure."

The show begins typically after 9pm, depending on how dark the sky will be at that time, usually pushing 9:15 or 9:20, to get the full exposure of the colors in the fireworks.

Fire dept and Forest service always have the option of canceling, though it has not happened before. Spradlin said he couldn’t imagine it would happen because the fireworks are over the lake. However, a little bit of drift on a high rocket, and one never knows. The forest service has crews on hand during the show to assure fires don't start.

Patriotic Americans for Fireworks interested in celebrating the birth of the nation and the freedom that we all enjoy make so much effort to assure your family enjoys another show this year. "They do a lot of fundraising and they never want to be recognized. They just want to do a good deed," Spradlin told the Kern Valley Sun.

"The key is to get a place early this year with the lake at full capacity parking and viewable sites are few and far between so get there early," he advised.

Zambelli Fireworks is the same company the planners have used for 25 years. "We anticipate next year’s (prices) being higher and an even harder a task to raise the funds. Most of our customers are in the habit of rounding up."

The committee started doing the roundup because of COVID it would be too hard a task for the chamber to raise the funds. And the push from the chamber was to drop the fireworks because of the cost. So Spradlin and his friends decided it was more important to the community and that the Fourth of July was well worth putting some extra effort into raising the funds.

"We get a lot of people that respond and acknowledge and thank us.
And the main thing is we have to have the donations." He said, "People respond and it's
a very giving community, very patriotic." He believes the show will happen again next year, a nickel and dime at a time.

However after the show there will still be canisters at these businesses. So Spradlin requested that the public to please when passing through one of these businesses remember to donate some bills, preferably larger bills. It will help.