July 8, 2012

San Diego Epic Fireworks Fail

San Diego ‘does an Oban’.

Last November 5th was ‘a bit of a one’ for the residents of Oban in Argyll and Bute when due to a ‘technical error’ all of the fireworks intended to be fired in a twenty-minute spectacular were all inadvertently let off in under a minute.

Never to be outdone, a similar incident will forever be etched on the residents of San Diego when their 18 minutes display fireworks in celebration of the 4th July were all set off in under 15 seconds instead.

The display was due to start at 9.00pm and last for around 18 minutes. However, at 8.55pm the spectators heard an explosion and a series of reports to look up to the sky to see what appeared to indicate that the sky was alight but was actually all the fireworks going off at the same time instead of the carefully planned display which the organisers had spent months creating.

The technical ‘glitch’ was found to be the fault of Garden State Fireworks who were the professional fireworks crew who said that the mistake was caused by a signal to the barges that would set up the timing for all the show following a brief introduction.

Independence Day revellers were left disappointed after the all-too-brief Wednesday night display but when you are wholly dependent on technology, things can go wrong – can’t they Oban?