Steamboat Springs — The Federal Aviation Administration has been notified, and Steamboat Springs fireworks fanatic Tim Borden is ready to launch his giant 48-inch-diameter firework into the Steamboat Springs sky.
According to Borden, if everything goes according to plan, the Night Extravaganza on Feb. 6 at Howelsen Hill will feature the largest firework ever launched in North or South America.
“We’re expecting the 48-inch shell will be the last firework on display,” Borden said.
It will feature blue, red and white flares.
For years, Borden has been donating the Winter Carnival fireworks, and it has proven to be the perfect testing grounds for his fireworks obsession. In years past, Borden has launched 36-inch and 24-inch shells. This year’s show will also feature a 24-inch shell.
Describing fireworks as Borden’s hobby is an understatement. On his ranch sits a large machine shed, which serves as the base for his licensed fireworks manufacturing facility. Locked cargo containers are packed with the fireworks and explosives.
Construction of the 48-inch shell began this summer when fireworks builders Jim Widmann and Eric Krug arrived at Borden’s ranch.
Building a 48-inch shell presented unique challenges.
“Everything’s different,” Widmann said. “That’s the challenge with this. You place your bet, and you hope you have it figured out.”
Widmann used a custom-built machine to wrap layers of brown tape around an exercise ball. Making the casing took about 32 hours.
“This has to stay in one piece,” Widmann said.
Krug worked on the guts of the firework, which is stuffed with about 350 pieces of explosives called stars.
Each star is made by filling a tube with a proprietary concoction of chemicals.
"We’ve spent hundreds of hours figuring out how much it should be,” Krug said. “My son, who’s a physics major, has been working on it.”
After filling the tube, it is placed into a hydraulic press, and the chemicals are compressed to 4,000 pounds per square inch to make a very hard disc. The discs are then baked for further hardening.
After the stars were placed in the casing and a fuse was inserted, the finished firework weighed a whopping 1,100 pounds.
Now Borden just had to figure out the logistics of launching the firework from Emerald Mountain.
A large metal tube was dug into the mountain and will serve as the mortar for the firework.
A crane will hoist the firework from the Borden property to a flatbed truck. The firework will then be transported to the mountain and lowered into the mortar, where 50 pounds of gunpowder is stuffed in the bottom. When ignited, the explosion will shoot the shell into the air.
"It gets accelerating to 300 miles per hour very fast,” Widmann said, “in fractions of a second.”
On the night of the big show, Borden will be on the mountain at the controls.
"I’m actually the guy that gets to press the button,” Borden said. “What I’m certain of is there will be an extremely large explosion at the bottom of that mortar"
