Fireworks in short supply this year

A fireworks shortage triggered by a storeroom fire in China could turn this Fourth of July into a dud.

Some fireworks vendors and show producers are scrambling for the noisy, colorful explosives. A few pleas for help are falling on local ears.

William G. Bulifant, president of Petersburg-based Dominion Fireworks, said he is taking three to six calls a day from worried fireworks vendors. He imports pyrotechnics, distributes them and does show work.

"We've actually helped a few companies, but we have to fill our contracts first," said Bulifant, whose company is producing about 40 shows this Independence Day, including events at Fort Lee, Yorktown and Virginia Beach.

Locally, the fireworks shows will likely go on without a delay, in part because a lot of big vendors have contracts for the shows. Nationwide, smaller vendors that don't order all year long or keep a large inventory are most at risk, officials say.

"There [are] going to be some towns across the U.S. that are not going to have shows because their providers don't have the product," said Doug Taylor, president and chief executive of Zambelli Fireworks Internationale. The Pennsylvania vendor will supply fireworks for shows in Colonial Heights and Cartersville in Cumberland County and said its supplies are sufficient.

Much of the problem can be traced to a Feb. 14 fireworks blaze in southern China, the closure of several shipping ports, a new inspection process overseas and a lack of ships willing to take the hazardous materials on the roughly 30-day journey, Bulifant and others said.

"The issue is the shipping," Bulifant said.

In 2006, about 80 percent of display fireworks used in the U.S. came from China, said Julie L. Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association. By weight, that amounts to nearly 21 million pounds.

Before the fire at a port called Sanshui, fireworks were shipped from four Chinese ports. Sanshui, which handled about 70 percent of the nation's fireworks exports, was shut down after fireworks were found stored improperly, Heckman said. Another port was closed because authorities discovered fireworks that were mislabeled.

The Shanghai port remains open, but ships only small fireworks, the kind people set off in backyards or at private parties. The only port open to professional-strength fireworks is Beihai. That port cannot handle large container ships.

"It's just an accumulation of things that have slowed it down," said Nancy Blogin, secretary of the National Fireworks Association.

Then there is shipping time.

"If you could order something today, it still wouldn't be here until the end of June and it still may be too late to pack it and get it ready for a show," said John Feigert, a show producer from Pyrotecnico Inc. in Atlanta, which is handling the two fireworks shows at The Diamond in Richmond. He said Pyrotecnico has sufficient inventory for the local show.

Heckman said her group is acting as a liaison between suppliers with extra inventory and those in need of supplies. The hope is that there will be enough fireworks to go around.

"This industry bleeds red, white and blue and the last thing we want is a community to be disappointed because they didn't get their show," Heckman said.