Vendor falls on his sword for fireworks failure

Steve Davis, the director of pyrotechnics displays at American Fireworks, the company responsible for Kyle’s Fourth of July pyrotechnics spectacular that fell spectacularly short of expectations, assumed full responsibility for the show’s failure, telling the City Council Tuesday night it was the result of workers who were promised to him but failed to show up.

He confirmed he received no money from the City for the show and does not expect any payments. He offered to restage the fireworks display on an appropriate date later in the year.

“I apologize,” said Davis, who was the athletic director and head football coach at Lehman High School from when it opened in 2004 until 2012. “We take pride in our shows. We built our business on that. I’m extremely embarrassed about it. That’s not what we’re about. I’m here to make it right for the City of Kyle.”

Davis said he partnered with another company who had promised to augment Davis’s workers to help staff the Kyle show. It was those pyrotechnicians who failed to report to work. Councilman Robert Rizo told Davis he should have cancelled the show when it was known as early as 4:45 p.m. Sunday the promised pyrotechnic crew was not going to show up.

“At that time we should have made the critical judgment that we were not going to be ready by nine o’clock and should have cancelled in order to give the families (who were coming to see the Kyle show) the opportunity to go elsewhere,” Rizo said. “I would have rather had the opportunity to tell the families ‘I’m sorry. We cannot put on a show tonight,’ and you would have given them the opportunity to go elsewhere.”