Local history: Fireworks disaster a blast from past

The Fifth of May was more thrilling than the Fourth of July.

A 1955 inferno at a fireworks factory in Hudson Township created a pyrotechnic display that was as frightening as it was dazzling.

"A spectacular series of fireworks explosions followed by a raging fire that lighted the sky like an atomic blast rocked northern Summit County early today and leveled the Hudson Fireworks Co.," the Beacon Journal reported May 5, 1955.

Sleeping Ohioans fell out of bed as the earth shook at 1:40 a.m. at the 8-acre complex at Route 91 and Hudson Drive. Explosions could be heard 30 miles away in Summit, Cuyahoga and Portage counties, and many residents initially believed the state was under attack from the Soviet Union.

Flames shot 500 feet into the air and rockets fired in every direction as firefighters converged on the chaotic scene. It looked like dozens of grand finales from fireworks shows had detonated at once.

Company owner A.J. DiMichele, one of the first people to arrive, frantically directed firetrucks on the property. The blasts destroyed 13 buildings, including the main office and 11 storehouses. Twelve other buildings were knocked off their foundations.

"Somebody must have set this off," DiMichele told a reporter. "It couldn't have been an accident.

"Who knows who it was? I had no trouble with anyone. Maybe it was some kids looking for firecrackers or something. But we don't make firecrackers here, only fireworks displays."

Brothers-in-law A.J. DiMichele and Jim Sorgi, Italian immigrants who had settled in Hudson in the early 20th century, formed a fireworks company in 1917. A year later, the partnership dissolved with DiMichele founding the Hudson Fireworks & Display Co. south of the city and Sorgi establishing the American Fireworks Display Co. on Route 91 north of Hudson.

Business boomed for both companies. By mid-century, they were producing more than 100 shows per year across the country. Hudson Fireworks' displays included Fourth of July festivities at Cleveland's Edgewater Park and postgame pyrotechnics for Indians games at Municipal Stadium.

More than two years of fireworks shows were in storage when the company exploded in 1955. Nobody was injured at the factory -- all six employees were off duty -- but several nearby residents suffered cuts when their windows shattered.

A Cuyahoga Falls man had a heart attack on Bailey Road after the explosions startled him in his sleep. Thousands of phone calls poured in to local police stations.

And thousands more gathered in the darkness along Route 91 to watch the fiery spectacle.

"No insurance," DiMichele said. "Just liability insurance for my employees. No company would insure the property against such a risk."

Damage was estimated at $150,000 (about $1.5 million today). DiMichele later paid $30,000 in damages to nearby property owners.

Unexploded fireworks showered the neighborhood for blocks around. Authorities urged residents to let experts pick up the bombs and warned residents not to try to explode any on their own.

In the morning, a parade of gawkers in slow-moving automobiles passed the charred rubble of Hudson Fireworks.

Investigators didn't believe the disaster was an accident. There had been no safety violations when a state inspector visited the plant Sept. 24, 1954.

Summit County Sheriff's Deputy Steve Hadinger theorized that an arsonist ran from storehouse to storehouse, lighting fuses with a blowtorch. Authorities found a gasoline-soaked sweater, and Hadinger suspected the arsonist had used it to light the torch.

A witness reported seeing an automobile drive south on Route 91 with its headlights off just after the first blast.

No one was ever charged in the conflagration.

Dr. Joseph Kasa, a Hudson dentist whose home was damaged in the explosions, began to circulate a petition to stop the company from rebuilding at the site.

Initially, Hudson Township Zoning Commission Chairman Burton Shellenbach was skeptical of neighbors' concerns, saying: "There is no reason why this couldn't become the fireworks center of the world."

Ultimately, Hudson Fireworks bowed to public pressure and moved its manufacturing to an 80-acre site off Work Road in Portage County's Shalersville Township.

A.J. DiMichele was 75 when he died Oct. 22, 1969, after a long illness. A week earlier, he had sold his company to Nolan Maher of Buckeye Fireworks in Cleveland.

The company continued for another two decades before going out of business.

In July 1989, two girls were killed and a boy was seriously injured when fireworks were detonated behind a Shalersville home. Portage County authorities said the fireworks had been stolen from a storage area at the defunct fireworks plant.

The owner pleaded guilty to felony charges stemming from the deadly accident, including unlawfully possessing high explosives.

State officials ordered the company to raze all of its storage buildings in a $250,000 cleanup.

White flames shot more than 20 feet high as hazardous materials experts from the Ohio Fire Marshal's Office destroyed about a ton of fireworks in a controlled burn at the Shalersville plant.

National Guardsmen used heavy equipment to dig deep trenches in which the explosives were soaked in diesel fuel and burned under the U.S. Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Detachment from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.

Experts took another 75 pounds of fireworks to Ravenna Arsenal to be destroyed.

It was the grand finale for a once-mighty company.

Mark J. Price can be reached at [email protected].

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