Recently, 20,000 pounds of fireworks were seized in Glasscock County, Texas, and the local bomb squads helped the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to dispose of them. How? By exploding the whole lot of them over the course of three and a half days and creating a tower of sparkling smoke.
The Midland Police Department posted this video to YouTube, explaining that Odessa, Lubbock, and Amarillo bomb squads were also present to assist with the fireworks disposal. It doesn't say just how many pounds of fireworks were detonated in this particular video, but it's still an impressive show. We can only imaging what it looked like to passersby.
On the department Facebook page, the MPD elaborates on the display:
To answer some of the questions we are getting, these fireworks were seized by ATF, not MPD. This disposal was very informative for our bomb techs who are charged with handling explosives. Also, this was done during the day because it was not meant to be a fireworks show. These fireworks could not be donated since their destruction was court-ordered.
[via The Awesomer and NPR]