Marblehead Fireworks Barge: Drone Footage

On July 4, 2024, our fireworks in Marblehead, MA were cancelled! This was because the barge that would be carrying the fireworks out in Marblehead Harbor had a fire in the early morning hours. In this video, I am using my drone to get some footage of the barge that had burned on July 4th. It was still sitting in the harbor and inspectors went onto the barge to look at it. Luckily the fireworks were not on the barge at the time of the fire. Despite that, the local officials and organizers did not want to approve the fireworks until they could determine why the fire occurred.

It is a huge barge with lots of cylinders on its surface that were used to launch the fireworks. You can see how large the barge is in these clips, when you compare it to the boat of investigators that motored up to it.

Several days later, they announced that the barge fire was an accident and that no foul play was involved. I had heard that the barge was used for fireworks at Swampscott the night before, so perhaps an ember or some hot material started the fire. They will keep our fireworks for next year and use them for an extra long fireworks display. The funds for the fireworks come form donations from families in town, including ours, and possibly from the town as well.

This was really disappointing news for the whole town, but everyone tried to still enjoy the holiday weekend! The towns’ tradition is to host a Festival of Arts all week with a champagne event, an arts marketplace at Abott hall, family events in Lee Mansion, a kids parade, art displays all around town, and various music performances at Crocker Park. We often spend many of tfxhe evenings listening to the bands at Crocker Park and watch the fireworks from there. So there were lots of activities to participate in and we still had a great time and still enjoyed the holiday. Some private families launched fireworks during the evening of July 4th, so that was pretty cool.

My daughter loves the July 4th holiday and was looking forward to it. Despite the fireworks being cancelled, she told me that this week was the best July 4th holiday that she has experienced. We met up with friends a lot, had beach time, and attended many of the events. The moral of the story is to keep a positive attitude like she did and always look at the glass half full.

I hope you liked this video. If you did, please click like, comment or subscribe. This is part of my drone video playlist on youtube.

Music: Just Like Heaven, Ukulele Cover by Vil Ramos