Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/06/watch-a-diy-gigantic-roman-candle-explode.html
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Or unless you’re the asshole neighbor one street over who lit off something similar but louder at MIDNIGHT on the 4th
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Yea nothing says “pyrotechnics expert” like jerry-rigging a bunch of roman candles together and lighting that shit off to a royalty-free breakbeat… I was basically a pyrotechnic grand master at age 6 if thats the measure.
Oh wait, are those full-wrap Oakleys?!? I stand corrected.
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Maybe he is more of a pyrotechnics “advanced” than expert…
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Or midnight on the 5th, because apparently a neighbor had extra fireworks leftover from the 4th. I really wish all municipalities would ban fireworks like these in the city limits. My dogs get super stressed out by it.
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[old man kids off lawn warning] Where i sit (seattle) private fireworks are banned. No matter, from 9pm to >1am every July-4th, and particularly so this year (why?), it’s a window rattling flash/boom every minute - especially emanating from city parks, with notable air-pollution the day after. There is no policing (too expensive? not enough officers? eh, whatcanyado?) - but the bit which always has me musing is the shear monetary outlay of it. It has to be in the thousands of dollars gone in a billow of smoke for some of these future deaf people. …what’s the attraction? -sigh-
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Well…watching stuff go boom can be very cool. Some of my favorite episodes of Myth Busters was when they blew stuff up. But for me, that’s how it should be done. Under controlled conditions, in a remote area, with as many safety precautions as are practical. But I get the attraction. I just don’t get the lack of care and concern for your fellow humans and animals that seems to come along with it every July 4th. Or sometimes even for yourself. An old story got recirculated on reddit a couple of days ago about a young (20 something) Disney employee who, for some reason, decided to shoot off a big firework using his head as a platform. His brother said there was no need to even call 911 afterwards because … well, you can imagine. Every year, thousands of people lose fingers, arms, have severe burns, and die, from setting off fireworks. It’s just bizarre to me that people abandon all common sense once a year. And alcohol doesn’t explain it all. That Disney employee was sober. His family said he never drank. At all. He just made a phenomenally stupid choice in one moment, and that was it.
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My city used to only allow certain (largely “safe and sane”) fireworks, and then banned them altogether, ant they have some pretty stiff penalties for violations, but they don’t seem to be enforcing it at all, so it’s actually gotten much, much worse, post-ban. (Maybe it was going to get worse anyways, but…) Fireworks being set off all hours of the night and day a week before and weeks after July 4th (plus other holidays and random times on random weekends throughout the year). Explosives big enough to set off car alarms all down a block, big rockets, etc. It’s like WWII on the night of the 4th until the wee hours of the morning, and I tend not to be able to go to bed before 2 or 3am around this time of year, in order to keep my dog from destroying the house and injuring himself trying to escape the noise, and keeping an eye out for anything being set on fire nearby (because this is California and the fire risk is substantial). I may have fantasies about patrolling the neighborhood with a baseball bat…
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I will say, where I live now actually isn’t nearly as bad as past places I’ve lived. Someone was setting off fireworks last night, but it was in an adjacent development. Still loud, but not next door. The difference? I live in a 55+ community. Most of my neighbors are in bed before 9.
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My immediate neighbors are fine - no one on my block is setting off fireworks these days. The fact that I’m jolted out of sleep at 3am (or significantly startled at 2pm) by a firework someone is setting off at least two or three blocks away tells you something of how powerful they are, though…
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Did anyone else half-expect this to happen to that dude?
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Obligatory:
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When I saw “DIY,” I wasn’t expecting to see a bunch of factory-made fireworks duck-taped together. I think maybe I’m using a different definition of DIY? Maybe it’s because I know pyrotechs who pack their own fireworks from scratch.
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Wait. Shouldn’t he walk away from the explosions without looking back?
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See, I know enough about pyrotechnics that “DIY roman candle” has me wanting to be very far away from that.
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I had an apartment directly overlooking the fireworks display on Lake Union when I lived there for a year. I loved it. Pretty awesome.
Of course- that was just for one year.
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Yes indeed! but then the Lake Union pyrotechnic artists didn’t trail off until after 2am (now even three days later… petulant insomniacs? “If I can’t sleep - no one can! buahahah” boom -sigh-)
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Why Roman candles? 
Lots of gruesome ideas with no cites. This one seems reasonable (with no cites either):
Roman candle fireworks did not originate in Ancient Rome or the city of Rome, Italy for that matter. Roman candle fireworks originated in China and became popular during the Italian Renaissance, which is why they acquired the name “Roman Candle”
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And then, there’s this:
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