Record-Setting Firework Turns Sky Red Over Colorado Festival

After thousands of hours of building fireworks over seven years—and one failed attempt due to a premature explosion—a team has brought the record for the world's largest firework to Colorado. The explosion turned the sky over Steamboat Springs' winter carnival red on Saturday night and earned a certificate for the team from a representative of Guinness World Records, reports CNN, which posted a video here. The shell weighed about as much as a Toyota Corolla—2,797 pounds—and was more than 5 feet in diameter. It was launched at 300mph from a 26-foot steel tube buried in a mountain, went nearly a mile up, then exploded. The previous record was held by a shell 400 pounds lighter, exploded in the United Arab Emirates in 2018.

The project was complex, Tim Borden said in a statement. "When you think of it on the physics level, to get a ton of anything up in the air with one explosion takes quite a bit of thinking," said the project's manager and financier. Borden, whose team had three other members, dedicated his victory to Steamboat Springs, per the Denver Post. "We had to work closely with these people to ensure that our firework posed absolutely no danger to people, wildlife or structures in the area," Borden said. (More fireworks stories.)