Final incident report, AP cake failure at BYU July 2024

[tustinfarm]

The final report issued for a 2024 fireworks incident at BYU is detailed in the pdf link below. Apparently a 36 shot AP cake was tipped over by a tube explosion, and fired some salutes directly into the stadium crowd. What makes this report so good is that usually filtered media reports never have this kind of detail, making it a guessing game about what actually went wrong. The display company did all of the right things regarding setup (sandbag bracing) and operator training, but device failure can still happen...so it's a reminder for all of us pyros to factor in as many "what if" scenarios when planning and setting up.

https://www.provo.gov/DocumentCenter/View/4206/Final-Report-Stadium-of-Fire-Findings-PDF

[displayfireworks1]

Is this the event you are talking about?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhv5L_Go-_I

[tustinfarm]

Yes, that's the event. In reading through the report, it looks like the failure was not a simple "cake tipped over" event, but rather the cake being partially blown apart by a couple of tubes that exploded. I don't recall ever reading such a detailed report for a fireworks incident at a public display like that.

[displayfireworks1]

I shot a similar Articles of Pyro cake in my backyard for New Years . Here is one of the remnants of the howling device I found in my yard a few days later. Looks similar to the device on page 27 of the report.
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7075

[BMoore]

Thanks for posting this. That is very interesting reading. I had never really considered the fact that howler or whistle inserts are essentially self-propelled rockets expelled via lift charge giving them such excessive potential travel distances. Definitely something to think about.

[displayfireworks1]

Not sure if this is the same 2024 show. Video is one year old. We learn the display company is from Kansas . Which explains the origins of the fireworks.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buZZtRqKhlE

[Salutecake]

Well we might not have to worry about the ATF, it may soon be abloished.

[displayfireworks1]

You can follow it along on this site. H.R.221 - Abolish the ATF Act
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https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/221?s=1&r=15
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[displayfireworks1]

Here is the cake they used the TM101 36S Howling Tails to Hammer.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mbrxuRsQ60
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Looking back in hindsight, probably a straight up salute cake may have worked out better on the shoot site

[tustinfarm]

Prior to this I had never thought about how the whistle inserts are self-powered like little rockets. I wonder if the argument in the report about the long distance achieved is correct, i.e. do the self-powered whistle inserts actually have a longer travel range than a standard insert with only a lift charge. I have the impression that the lift charges for the whistle cakes are reduced, so that the total travel distance is reached via the whistle mix. But I guess the travel distance would also be much longer if directed horizontally, since it is not expending any energy working against gravity. And to make things even worse, the whistles were launched from a high vantage point relative to the crowd on the field, further extending the potential distance. I suspect even a "standard" cake could reach the same distance if fired horizontally from that vantage.

Finally, the report noted that the cake was "double fused" - i.e. both e-match ports were fired at the same time - cutting the cake's run time in half...but potentially adding some extra risk. In other words, the fusing may have been interrupted when the two bad tubes blew and re-aimed things, perhaps without double fusing that could have interrupted the rest of the cake from firing, whereas the double fusing would have provided two different fuse burn paths. Just a thought.