SUMNER — Despite a 100% chance of rain Sunday night, Sumner Mayor Jackson Webb IV said the planned 7 p.m. Christmas Eve fireworks show will go on as scheduled on Cassidy Bayou in the heart of town.
In a Thursday night telephone call to The Sun-Sentinel, Webb noted that a spokesperson for Pyro Shows, the Tennessee-based company that orchestrates the annual Sumner light display, reassured him that rain would not stop the show.
"He told me that he has executed fireworks shows in rain so heavy that no one would want to stand out in it," Webb said.
To overstate the obvious, professional fireworks do not involve the manual lighting of a fuse as with consumer fireworks. Pyrotechnics are wired and their charges set off by remote signals.
Sumner Mayor Jackson Webb IV
Setup by the pyrotechnicians on show day is a laborious and painstaking process, Webb explained.
"They get here at around 10 in the morning and start loading and wiring," the mayor noted. "It's all done inside the firehouse."
Webb said that while the experts will not be hindered by wet weather, spectators may.
"People may have to watch the fireworks from their vehicles rather than standing outside," he noted.
Then again, maybe a little Christmas Eve magic will provide a window of opportunity for the show to be launched in light rain or none at all.
