Washington DC

Surprise fireworks display lights up DC sky

DC Council unaware of event celebrating Canadian tech company opening a new office

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Wondering what those fireworks that lit up the sky Thursday night were for? They were part of a celebration of the opening of a Canadian software security company’s new office in Rosslyn — and for most, they were a complete surprise.

Video of the display that made Oct. 5 look like the Fourth of July lit up social media.

“I thought, ‘Baseball is over, why am I seeing fireworks?’” D.C. resident J. Smith said with a shrug.

“Something good must have happened, so yea D.C.,” said Kelson Jayce, a visitor from California.

Representatives for Genetec said they’ve been working for this moment for a long time, and they wanted to celebrate with a bang.

But even the D.C. Council was kept in the dark about the pyrotechnics.

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A representative for Pyrotecnico Fireworks, which staged the show, said they filed permit applications with all of the appropriate agencies — the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, DC Harbor Patrol, D.C. Fire & EMS, and the bomb squad — but no one told D.C. Council, and spokespeople for D.C. fire and D.C. police said they knew nothing about it when News4 asked.

The Coast Guard even created a safety zone on the Potomac River where the fireworks were launched from a boat near the Kennedy Center.

“I thought it looked awesome,” said August Wager of California. “It was really exciting, and we’re on vacation, so it was cool to see it.”

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