Bend’s big fireworks show set to go off with a bang

The big fireworks show from atop Bend’s Pilot Butte is almost ready to go

The whole butte was closing to the public by 10 p.m. Tuesday night so the Bend Fire Department can finish safety preparations and the owner of the fireworks, Homeland Fireworks, can finish their set up work without distractions.

The department will have several crews, different agencies and volunteers keeping watch for fire starts and keeping the community safe.

If a fire does start, the crew nearest to the blaze will put it out, and the show will most likely continue.

According to Battalion Chief Dave Howe, the department is extremely vigilant about potential fires on the butte, but also has to respond to their normal medical emergency calls.

“This is our busiest day of the year, the Fourth of July, by far. We get probably double the number of calls than we usually respond to in a day, and they almost all come in the evening,” Howe said. “Many of them are a bush on fire, a tree on fire, smoldering material because of someone else’s fireworks, and that distracts us from the true emergencies that might occur.”

Howe said the agencies watch the forecast closely the days before and on the Fourth to judge how dry and hot the temperatures will be.

The company in charge of the fireworks is called Homeland Fireworks. They’ve been prepping about 300 fireworks for the show.

The fireworks range from three to six inches in diameter. Basically, a six-inch firework will go up about 600 feet in the air.

The fireworks will be placed along the road that winds to the top of Pilot Butte. They go off in a sequence set through a computer system. An electric match has been attached to each fuse, and the engineer times each firework so different patterns go off at different times.

“These are contained explosives, so if something goes wrong, if someone messes with one of these things, or if it misfires, it can be very dangerous for someone.” said Jason Crain of Homeland Fireworks. “If someone is holding these when they go off, they will lose limbs. They’re pretty intense.”

On any other day, the fire department will receive about 30 calls. But on July 4, they receive around 60 to 70 calls.

The department also urges people to steer clear of illegal or large fireworks.

“From the second they light that fuse, they are responsible for whatever that firework does,” Howe said.

“If a rocket for example, they fire it off, it’s just great fun for everybody. But they fire it off and it lands on somebody’s roof, starts a fire on a roof, or lands on a tree and gets a tree going, that gets the house going, they are responsible for that,” Howe said. “They are responsible for all the damages, responsible for the cost of the suppression of the fire.”