Last-minute sales on fireworks in SWFL before Independence Day

With time running out before July Fourth celebrations explode through Southwest Florida, there are many sales to take advantage of when assembling your own Independence Day fireworks display.

According to Phantom Fireworks, located at 16243 S. Tamiami Trail in South Fort Myers, the last four years have seen an increase in people putting on their own fireworks shows at home, and there is no need to buy them at full price.

Everything at Phantom Fireworks is 50% off in time for July Fourth and all the firework stands you pass will bear huge signs advertising buy one, get one free or buy two, get one free sales.

Phantom Fireworks said its prices are down for 2023 because the cost of shipping has fallen. The fireworks vendors who spoke to WINK News said they don’t expect to run out of products, but they may run out of some of the most popular pieces. If you are looking for something specific, go as soon as you can.

“I think it’s because in 2020 everything was shut down; there were no firework shows,” said Denny Billec, manager of Phantom Fireworks. “Everybody started to do fireworks at their home or in their community, or, you know, their neighborhoods, and I think that carried through to these next few years … The most popular [fireworks] year-in, year-out are 500 grand repeaters; those are the ones that are loaded with the most legal load, up to 500 grams of pyrotechnics, and then are reloadable shells.”

Billec emphasized that people planning to launch their own Independence Day fireworks shows at home must make sure to celebrate safely.

“You do not want to be drinking or on drugs when you’re doing fireworks, OK?” Billec said. “If they’re doing an aerial, the audience should be about 150 feet away from that object that they’re lighting, or that box or whatever the firework they’re lighting on a hard, flat surface. If they’re doing a floor- or a ground-based firework, which is a fountain or a spinner, the audience can be about 35 feet away…
If we’re gonna light an aerial or even a fun anything, you want to brace it to make sure that does not tip over.”

Keep all those safety tips in mind, even when handling sparklers, which can reach 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Phantom suggested lighting only one at a time, holding it out at arm’s length and having a bucket of water to douse it in after.