Maine company responsible for ‘highly hazardous’ fireworks shells that washed up on Chappaquiddick Island, state officials say – The Boston Globe

Authorities say the fireworks were “improperly disposed of” after Edgartown’s July 4 fireworks show by Central Maine Pyrotechnics. The fireworks were shot from a barge in the water between Edgartown and Chappaquiddick, the fire marshal’s office said.

The company is prohibited from conducting fireworks displays in the state pending a July 26 hearing, the statement said.

Jake Wark, a spokesman for the state Division of Fire Services, said shells are dangerous even after they’ve been in the water.

The office released photos of the shells covered in paper wrappers. Inside ” . . . is a plastic shell containing large quantities of energetic material, and that energetic material is still vulnerable to heat, shock, and friction,” he said in an e-mail.

“The shells we recovered range from about three inches in diameter to about eight inches, and any of them could cause catastrophic injury or death. It’s very important that they be handled only by trained professionals with the appropriate protective equipment,” Wark said.

Anthony Marson, who is vice president of the company and was the operator at the Edgartown show, said the shells were “duds” that launched from the barge but failed to explode in the air and fell into the water. He said this is not uncommon for fireworks shows done over water.

“I can assure you I didn’t throw shells into the ocean,” he said in a telephone interview Friday. “I’m not that stupid, and Massachusetts is the last place I would ever do that.”

He said the shells used in the Edgartown show were between 3 and 6 inches in diameter and that there were no 8-inch shells.

Marson said he was catching a ferry to the mainland Wednesday morning when he heard the shells had been discovered and the bomb squad was responding. On Thursday, he received an e-mail from the state fire marshal’s office informing him of the July 26 hearing and ordering him to surrender his license.

“That caught me off guard quite a bit,” he said.

A similar issue came up for the company after a fireworks show in Hingham on Labor Day weekend last year when a shell was discovered in the harbor, but it did not result in a suspension, Marson said.

An employee with the company had their license suspended for 60 days after conducting a winter fireworks show in western Massachusetts in December 2021, Marson said. He said the employee inspected the grounds after the show but a shell was later found when rain melted the snow away.

Central Maine Pyrotechnics has been operating fireworks shows across the region since 1987. Marson said he has been working with fireworks since he was 18 and now helps run the company with his father, Steven Marson, the owner.

The company had been scheduled to conduct fireworks displays in Seekonk on Saturday and in Pittsfield next weekend but had to back out due to the suspension, Marson said.

The company also put on the Fourth of July fireworks show for Edgartown last summer, he said.

Town officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The state fire marshal’s office issued photos of the shells and urged anyone who sees a similar object to call 911 to ensure the object can be disposed of safely.

“All of the known shells have been cleared from the beach, but there is a possibility that more may wash up,” the fire marshal’s office said.

Globe correspondent Maeve Lawler contributed to this report.

Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickStoico.