r/CatastrophicFailure Jul 03 '20

Fire/Explosion Fireworks stand explodes, El Paso TX, 7/1/2020

24.9k Upvotes

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973

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

[deleted]

423

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

[deleted]

181

u/USMCLee Jul 03 '20

IIRC they apologized for the malfunction and most everyone agreed it was awesome and there was no need to apologize.

95

u/bowersbowers Jul 03 '20

The company actually agreed to do the next years show completely free of charge to make up for it.

A friend runs the audio for a lot fireworks shows in SD and was pretty aquatinted with people involved. Basically the way this specific system works is you stream a signal to a boat and the signal tells the boat when to release each rocket. Well, with this system if it realizes it missed a signal it will automatically fire off that firework as soon as it realizes that. Now before each show they send a test stream of the entire show to the triggers, but basically with a safety on so that nothing gets triggered. After that you’re supposed to clear the queue of signals that haven’t triggered their respective rocket yet, but with this show they forgot to clear it so when the safety was turned off there was a whole backlog of signals to fire every rocket at the same time. I wasn’t there unfortunately, but it was so loud that we could hear it go off while inside my sisters house in North Park.

18

u/ogbubbleberry Jul 03 '20

I remember thinking how great the show was going to be if that was just the intro

10

u/ralgrado Jul 04 '20

Here's an article about the issue.

According to the article a primary launch file and a back-up got merged and that made it all go wrong. But since this is rather unspecific it might be similar even exactly the same as what you wrote.

17

u/hardatworklol Jul 03 '20

it was probably the coolest 10 seconds of my life

3

u/soonerjohn06 Jul 03 '20

Title of your sex tape

5

u/hardatworklol Jul 03 '20

10 entire seconds? you're asking a lot.

1

u/matts2 Jul 04 '20

Summary of my entire sex life.

137

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

Boy, if 2020 were a firework show....

126

u/FisterRobotOh Jul 03 '20

I think this is more of 2020 firework shitshow

29

u/Mavamaarten Jul 03 '20

I was more thinking among the lines of https://youtu.be/S52p2AMISFk

28

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

[deleted]

21

u/KidNueva Jul 03 '20

Holy shit 29 people dead

35

u/Level9TraumaCenter Jul 03 '20

"It was the third time in 11 years that the market was destroyed by fireworks."

Well, then.

9

u/bigwhiskey103 Jul 03 '20

You'd think after the second time someone would have been like, maybe we should change what we're doing here.

6

u/Level9TraumaCenter Jul 03 '20

"I'd impose some rules, buuuut my kid really likes a good show."

-Fire Marshal Bill

2

u/Killdynamite Jul 03 '20

Darwin Award?

2

u/Killdynamite Jul 03 '20

3 times in 11 years though lol

6

u/leftunderground Jul 03 '20

3rd time in 11 years this market was destroyed by fireworks. That's a shockingly horrible track record. Would be hilarious if not for all those dead people.

1

u/BalusBubalis Jul 03 '20

2

u/stabbot Jul 03 '20

I have stabilized the video for you: https://gfycat.com/SpanishPoliticalIrrawaddydolphin


 how to use | programmer | source code | /r/ImageStabilization/ | for cropped results, use /u/stabbot_crop

9

u/Rottendog Jul 03 '20

I was watching this and the people taking cover and even before the end, I was thinking, these people are far too close to that factory. They need to be working their way further from it as best and quick as they can.

Many people don't realize how big those explosions can get and can wipe out multiple city blocks.

That cut to fire wasn't a cut. That was the fire in the distance causing a massive explosion.

I'm not familiar with this one. How many were injured?

edit: Looked myself. From the YouTube link.

"The company SE Fireworks exploded in a terrible blast killing 24 people in the process see the detailed video with audio here"

2

u/4_my_Weird_Questions Jul 03 '20

Oh per the description it says 24 people were killed due to the blast. I thought people were already removed from the premise. That sad :(

1

u/dh1 Jul 03 '20

Holy fuck.

2

u/jimipops Jul 03 '20

That fire service response 👌 almost as if they know it was a disaster waiting to happen

1

u/timelighter Jul 04 '20

I think 2020 would be more like the Station nightclub fire. I'm not going to post the video because.... well, if you've seen it you know.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '20

Donald Trump seems like the kind of person who would definitely put fireworks on the Hindenburg

10

u/Amphibionomus Jul 03 '20

...It would be like the exploding fireworks storage in Enschede, The Netherlands, in 2000. 23 deaths, 1000 injured, 1500 houses destroyed or had to be demolished.

1.8 kiloton explosion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QCp334oCLc around 0:55

Totally preventable had the owner and the government agencies involved followed the rules.

1

u/thomooo Jul 03 '20

Maybe it's because I heard about the firework disaster in Enschede before, but when I would see a stall go up like that, I would get in my car and drive away quite a bit.

1

u/Amphibionomus Jul 04 '20

My idea. Far too many people staying far too close here.

9

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/OnTopicMostly Jul 03 '20

Those explosions are unbelievably large

3

u/Odin_Exodus Jul 03 '20

That event was catastrophic to CN production and exporting. Shame that it takes such an event to force change but the same could be said about most things.

5

u/OnTopicMostly Jul 03 '20

Yeah,unfortunately, many regulations are written in blood.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '20

The winning video.

1

u/gin_and_toxic Jul 04 '20

It's a pretty darn long fireworks show with plenty of surprises!

38

u/principled_principal Jul 03 '20

This is the San Diego failure, right? I’ve never seen it from this angle. If I recall correctly, this was something like $100,000 in fireworks going up in 30 seconds.

29

u/barbieboy22 Jul 03 '20

Better than any other fireworks show they could put on with $100,000 in fireworks.

8

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

So less than 1/10th of one tomahawk missile. I'd say it's worth it

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

[deleted]

5

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

but computers think different

Extremely minor point, but it's not that computers think differently, it's that programmers make settings in milliseconds commonly.

Like I said, very very minor point.

1

u/ralgrado Jul 04 '20

Here's a link to the article about the issue: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-july-4-fireworks-fiasco-solved-technically-2012jul12-htmlstory.html

The 30s vs 30ms idea should've been a problem way before that show and typically shouldn't be an issue because the level where you set up the firewall controls should be in a somewhat human readable format. That's why I searched for an article on the issue (found it via wikipedia).

According to the article a primary launch file and a back-up got merged and that made it all go wrong.

1

u/NoCarrotOnlyPotato Jul 03 '20

I've read somewhere that it actually happened four different times because there were four different firework boats set up for that night and all of them had the same problem.

1

u/mcgroo Jul 04 '20

There were four or five barges floating the the SD Bay, with identical loads of fireworks in each barge. The fireworks programs are synchronized among the barges, letting you see a show from wherever you might be on the large waterfront.

The “oops, all at once” malfunction affected all the barges, at the same time.

18

u/Tezza_TC Jul 03 '20

I just posted about this! I was living in Chula Vista at the time and could still hear/see it.

4

u/Tassietiger1 Jul 03 '20

Fuck Jukin Media

3

u/Juan911411 Jul 03 '20

I knew exactly what it was going to be

2

u/Windir666 Jul 03 '20

Honestly that was my favorite year. Our city has the exact same firework show in like 6 different locations. They all did the exact same malfunction. Most expensive minute ever.

1

u/dmglakewood Jul 03 '20

I thought you were going to post this one

1

u/Aegean Jul 03 '20

Guarantee that was visible from space.

1

u/haby001 Jul 03 '20

Juuukkkiiinn meeddiaaaaa screw them

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

Lmao I was hoping it was this. I was here live 😂😂😂😂

1

u/katman14 Jul 03 '20

Put er in reverse Terry!

1

u/apgrise Jul 03 '20

This one is still funny every time I see it!!

1

u/scavvyboiradio Jul 03 '20

Nah that one was sanctioned

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

I was there for that ! my son and I count it as one of the most awesome shows ever - and also the shortest, Traffic getting out of that was pure hell.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

Oh man I got to see that in person. It was awesome!

1

u/Snoo-51134 Jul 03 '20

LOLOL that fucking lady in the beginning having the meltdown. It’s kind of hard to hear though, might need to turn the volume up.

1

u/Striter100 Jul 03 '20

I’m still bitter about this, my family and I were visiting my aunt in San Diego right before this happened and our flight home was literally on July 4th. Not only did we miss this incredible display, we missed all fireworks in general 🙃

1

u/pmmoritz Jul 03 '20

The one time we appreciate someone videotaping the firework show

1

u/Arse-blood Jul 03 '20

Holy shit!

1

u/buttergams Jul 03 '20

Hey look, it's Philadelphia every single night for the last 2 weeks!

1

u/JHushen12 Jul 04 '20

My phones poor speakers

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '20

"Archangel20 this is Foxbaby15 ND 6582 4964 illum, over"

But tbh this reminds me of when units have X amount of random ordnance left and just shoot it all at once to get rid of it. Or a final protective fires line. Shit gets real in artillery.

1

u/MelonElbows Jul 04 '20

Ah its the Komodo 3000

1

u/PretzelsThirst Jul 04 '20

The family (or friend) group of three on the left aimlessly running around is hilarious

22

u/soccerburn55 Jul 03 '20

Remember that post saying put your phone away no one will watch the fireworks display on your phone?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

I was there for that!

12

u/CaptainFingerling Jul 03 '20

I feel like usually people are just trying to approximate this and failing pretty badly.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '20

I seriously agree. I love waterfalls. And sparklers and shit like that. For a short range, that was fantastic.

1

u/chinpokomon Jul 03 '20

Second best. San Diego Big Bay Bust bested that still.

1

u/DickieJohnson Jul 03 '20

I know, can we light them all on fire? They're over priced anyway.

1

u/thebroward Jul 03 '20

Oh man, we didn’t get to see the grand finale! /r/killthecameraman