Nissan Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, sustained damage Tuesday when a fireworks shell launched as part of Nashville’s Fourth of July celebration detonated late upon landing in a designated fallout zone. The detonation blew out concrete and some seats on the west side of the stadium’s upper deck.
Though rare, the malfunction illustrated the destructive power of shells designed for viewer entertainment. No one was injured by the misfire, but Pyro Shows, the company that has produced the Music City’s Fourth of July display for three decades, is financially responsible for the stadium damage.
From AB: Fireworks a Hot Safety Topic at Sporting Events
“It took place toward the end of the show,” said Lansden Hill, owner of Pyro Shows, as reported by titaninsider.com. “The shells are supposed to go off in the air, but this one came back down and didn’t go off until it landed in the upper deck.
“It was just one of those things that will occasionally happen. That’s why the fire code requires that we keep the crowd a certain area away from it. We know out of every 1,000 shells not all of them are going to work right.”
The damage is not expected to impact upcoming stadium events, which include a pair of Gold Cup soccer matches — one this Saturday and another July 29. The Titans play their first preseason game Aug. 19.
While a stadium event wasn’t the cause of this particular mishap, there are examples of what can go wrong when sports and fireworks intersect, including personal injury to spectators and trained pyrotechnicians alike. Read AB’s coverage here.
