By Morris Sullivan Every Fourth of July, all over the U. S., little cardboard cannons fire their projectiles into the night sky where they blossom into bright colors and dramatic shapes.
In cities like Port Orange, Lake Helen, DeLand, Ormond Beach and two dozen or so other cities in Florida and elsewhere, those fantastic fireworks come courtesy of a 127-year-old family firm headquartered in our own back yard.
Santore & Sons and its sister company, Fireworks by Santore,
manufacture fireworks and stage displays not only for the local Fourth
of July celebration, but baseball games, speedway events, and perhaps
even your favorite rock band's grand finale.
On a typical workday, Marci Engelhardt and Tabatha Wendling stand at their workstation at the Santore & Sons fireworks factory. Each woman assembles carefully measured amounts of explosive black powder, along with "stars" and "comets," into black cardboard mortars.
"It's a fun job, because you get to do different things every day,"
Engelhardt says. "But you have to be so meticulous. You have to check
yourself every step of the way - just so someone can blow it up."
The recipe for success in a competitive fireworks industry calls for equal parts innovation and quality control, says Anthony Santore Jr. At age 33, the fourth-generation fireworks maker and his uncle, Ralph Santore Jr., head up the Bunnell fireworks factory, Santore & Sons.
They also run a sister company, Fireworks by Santore, that typically handles the Fourth of July shows in St. Augustine, Flagler Beach, Port Orange, Ormond Beach, Lake Helen and two dozen or so other communities in Florida and elsewhere.
Santore & Sons was founded in 1890 by Santore's great-grandfather, August Santore, who brought the business to Florida in 1974.
At its Bunnell plant, the company manufactures fireworks for ballparks, theme parks, and sports events to be used throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, Australia and beyond.
At three facilities - the main plant in Bunnell, a storage facility in Osteen, and another factory in DeLand -- workers turn out non-explosive components like the paper mortar parts.
There are only four other fireworks manufacturers of its kind in the country.
"We're very fortunate to be near Sea World, Disney and all those theme parks," Anthony Santore says.
In recent decades, the factory began specializing in low-flight and close proximity fireworks, the kind of effects that stay on the ground or fly up only 350 feet or less for use in theme park and stage settings.
Many of the company's products are designed exclusively for clients. For example, a theme park might ask for what looks like hundreds of candles floating on the water. "They don't want to see that show up somewhere else," Santore says.
And marketing departments for sports teams often request effects that burn in very specific colors, like the Jacksonville Jaguars' teal and gold, for example.
Not everything the company sells is a typical "bombs bursting in air" product, he adds.
For example, there's the "gerb," which emits a plume of silver sparks and is a popular effect for stage shows. "We can even use cold-spark technology," he says. That way, they can be used onstage in rock shows and similar settings. "With the cold sparks, they won't burn the performer," Santore says.
The company is also known for confetti effects and propane flames, which can shoot up to 40 feet high. Santore collaborates with another company on laser effects that bounce on fields of smoke. "We've had to evolve a lot in the last five years," Santore says. "Now there's almost nothing we won't do."
Most of today's fireworks are more like cannons than rockets, he
explains, with projectiles fired from a cardboard mortar. Santore's
shells are almost all ignited electrically.
Different oxidizers and fuels create different burn times, explosions and colors like magenta, cyan, tangerine and teal.
The company has several designers on staff, most working on location. Santore & Sons helped develop special software used to design and choreograph displays. A designer can lay out a show, tweak timing and effects, choreograph explosions to music, and make changes with the theme park's production manager looking on.
"They can actually see what the show's going to look like on their computer," Anthony Santore says. Then the designer can e-mail it to the factory, he says, where the production team can start filling the order.
Most people assume the company is busy one or two days a year, Santore says. But manufacturing, design and development are all-year processes and there's never a lull. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the staff is "insanely busy," says Santore, preparing for Independence Day events and supplying smaller theme parks with pyrotechnic products.
Once July 4 has passed, the company begins gearing up for NASCAR's racing season and New Year celebrations. Once that has passed, they're busily stocking the bigger theme parks with their fireworks.
"We've been in business since 1890, so we've done a lot of shows," Santore says. "The ones that stand out in my mind were special situations - like the 2001 Pepsi 400," which Dale Ernhardt Jr. won only months after his father's death in that year's Daytona 500.
"But the best things is when you get to be in a crowd of 15,000 people and hear their responses," he says. "Especially on July 4, which is so emotionally charged anyway. That's the best part of the business."
On a typical workday, Marci Engelhardt and Tabatha Wendling stand at their workstation at the Santore & Sons fireworks factory. Each woman assembles carefully measured amounts of explosive black powder, along with "stars" and "comets," into black cardboard mortars.
"It's a fun job, because you get to do different things every day,"
Engelhardt says. "But you have to be so meticulous. You have to check
yourself every step of the way - just so someone can blow it up." The recipe for success in a competitive fireworks industry calls for equal parts innovation and quality control, says Anthony Santore Jr. At age 33, the fourth-generation fireworks maker and his uncle, Ralph Santore Jr., head up the Bunnell fireworks factory, Santore & Sons.
They also run a sister company, Fireworks by Santore, that typically handles the Fourth of July shows in St. Augustine, Flagler Beach, Port Orange, Ormond Beach, Lake Helen and two dozen or so other communities in Florida and elsewhere.
Santore & Sons was founded in 1890 by Santore's great-grandfather, August Santore, who brought the business to Florida in 1974.
At its Bunnell plant, the company manufactures fireworks for ballparks, theme parks, and sports events to be used throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, Australia and beyond.
At three facilities - the main plant in Bunnell, a storage facility in Osteen, and another factory in DeLand -- workers turn out non-explosive components like the paper mortar parts.
There are only four other fireworks manufacturers of its kind in the country.
"We're very fortunate to be near Sea World, Disney and all those theme parks," Anthony Santore says.
In recent decades, the factory began specializing in low-flight and close proximity fireworks, the kind of effects that stay on the ground or fly up only 350 feet or less for use in theme park and stage settings.
Many of the company's products are designed exclusively for clients. For example, a theme park might ask for what looks like hundreds of candles floating on the water. "They don't want to see that show up somewhere else," Santore says.
And marketing departments for sports teams often request effects that burn in very specific colors, like the Jacksonville Jaguars' teal and gold, for example.
Not everything the company sells is a typical "bombs bursting in air" product, he adds.
For example, there's the "gerb," which emits a plume of silver sparks and is a popular effect for stage shows. "We can even use cold-spark technology," he says. That way, they can be used onstage in rock shows and similar settings. "With the cold sparks, they won't burn the performer," Santore says.
The company is also known for confetti effects and propane flames, which can shoot up to 40 feet high. Santore collaborates with another company on laser effects that bounce on fields of smoke. "We've had to evolve a lot in the last five years," Santore says. "Now there's almost nothing we won't do."
Most of today's fireworks are more like cannons than rockets, he
explains, with projectiles fired from a cardboard mortar. Santore's
shells are almost all ignited electrically. Different oxidizers and fuels create different burn times, explosions and colors like magenta, cyan, tangerine and teal.
The company has several designers on staff, most working on location. Santore & Sons helped develop special software used to design and choreograph displays. A designer can lay out a show, tweak timing and effects, choreograph explosions to music, and make changes with the theme park's production manager looking on.
"They can actually see what the show's going to look like on their computer," Anthony Santore says. Then the designer can e-mail it to the factory, he says, where the production team can start filling the order.
Most people assume the company is busy one or two days a year, Santore says. But manufacturing, design and development are all-year processes and there's never a lull. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the staff is "insanely busy," says Santore, preparing for Independence Day events and supplying smaller theme parks with pyrotechnic products.
Once July 4 has passed, the company begins gearing up for NASCAR's racing season and New Year celebrations. Once that has passed, they're busily stocking the bigger theme parks with their fireworks.
"We've been in business since 1890, so we've done a lot of shows," Santore says. "The ones that stand out in my mind were special situations - like the 2001 Pepsi 400," which Dale Ernhardt Jr. won only months after his father's death in that year's Daytona 500.
"But the best things is when you get to be in a crowd of 15,000 people and hear their responses," he says. "Especially on July 4, which is so emotionally charged anyway. That's the best part of the business."
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