It was a spectacular week of Independence Day celebrations, starting on Friday, June 28 in Stidham and ending Saturday, July 6 with awesome fireworks shows in Longtown and Carlton Landing and at Xtreme Resorts.
VFW Post 8798 hosted its first July 4 fireworks display Thursday, July 4, with great success.
It lacked the big-budget displays that took the breath away of fans in Checotah, Eufaula and Longtown, but it nevertheless provided a sensational evening of entertainment for the more than 100 people who attended the event, which got underway shortly after 9 p.m. in a field west of the VFW parking lot.
Mother Nature provided a pre-show display of lightning that lit up the dark clouds.
A light rainfall ended an hour earlier.
The pyro-technician who oversaw the fireworks was Joe Eslick, an amateur firework’s enthusiast who routinely puts on large shows for his family members.
VFW Post Commander Jeremy Owen recruited Eslick to produce the show.
“He does shows for his family all the time. It’s something he really enjoys,” Owen said.
When Eslick isn’t putting on firework shows, he is a maintenance man at the VFW.
Owen, who recently became Post Commander, said he wants to do more communityoriented events in the future.
Eufaula’s annual show attracted thousands of spectators, essentially more than doubling the town’s population.
Cars were packed tight around the cove and along South Main Street.
The Eufaula show got off to a slow start as firefighters extinguished a fire at Nichols Point, where the fireworks were shot.
Fire Chief Chad French said a city truck with an attached dump trailer filled with trash from the firework’s setup was parked at the site.
“Falling debris from the fireworks fell into the trailer and caught the trailer on fire that was still connected to the truck. My department responded quickly to put the fire out and saved the city truck and trailer,” French said.
“Unfortunately, due to protocols with the company that puts on our firework display, they shut down the show for safety reasons until we got the fire out. No one was injured.”
Apparently, some folks thought the show was over at that point.
It wasn’t, only paused. “Sorry for any misunderstanding that the show was over, or inconvenience this incident may have caused,” French said.
