Skip to content

Fireworks at Pitt Meadows Day

Fireworks will light up the skies in Pitt Meadows at 10 p.m. on June 2
28422mapleridgefireworks10301c
Fireworks begin at 10 p.m.on Pitt Meadows Day - June 2.

Bruce Edwards knows a thing or two about fireworks.

After 10 years of organizing the fireworks for Pitt Meadows Day, he has become an expert on putting together a light show to dazzle the thousands who are expected to converge on the Pitt Meadows Athletic Fields to cap Pitt Meadows Day.

Edwards, a firefighter with the Pitt Meadows volunteer  department,   orders and arranges the fireworks and has a team of six or seven licensed individuals to help him set them off.

“We do three-, four-, five- and six-inch shells,” said Edwards. “We have some called cakes, which there can be 20 to 50 explosions in one of these things.”

The cakes go by the names Outlaw, Scorpion, Tumbleweed and Poisonous Spider.

“Poisonous Spider is the best one because it’s the loudest and it usually lasts the longest,” said Edwards.

Edwards will also set off shells, as well, like the Red Comet and Titanium Thunder.

“What happens is when that goes up, it is red, and then when it explodes at the top, it’s like a big bang and it’s like white,” said Edwards.

They are all different colours, too – pink, green and blue.

Each year Edwards purchases a different variety of fireworks to achieve different effects.

This year Edward’s fireworks supplier has thrown in a new shell called Widow’s Peak. Edwards is not sure exactly what it does when it goes off, but can’t wait to try it out.

The fireworks will take place a 10 p.m. in the south west corner of the Pitt Meadows Athletic Fields.

Edwards and his team start setting up for the show at 6 p.m., shutting down Airport Road. from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. and notifying the Pitt Meadows airport so it can divert air traffic to land and take off from the west side instead of the east.

More than 5,000 people come out to see the fireworks, said Edwards. So, he suggests getting to the park by 9:30 p.m..

At 9:40 flares are lit that last 20 minutes to signal to people that the show is about to begin. Once the flares go out, Edwards sets off a couple of test shots to see what direction the wind is blowing.

But, once the flares go out, it gets dark, said Edwards, and that’s when we start.