This year we will have some awesome assortments packaged in vintage wooden ammunition boxes. Quantities are extremely limited so shop early.
This year we will have some awesome assortments packaged in vintage wooden ammunition boxes. Quantities are extremely limited so shop early.
Mugs Up fountain and Oktoberfest are a few or our staff favorites. See them in action on our FIREWORKS VIDEOS page.
Shaolin Tradition from Brother’s Pyrotechnics was a new item for us last year. This trio of cakes ROCKS! Check out the video on the FIREWORKS VIDEOS page.
Getting ready to sell fireworks can be like a circus sideshow. We travel thousands and thousands of miles looking for hot new fireworks. In the spring of 2009 we viewed somewhere around 800 new fireworks items. Of those 800, we selected only the best of the best for our locations.
$500 VISA Gift Card Winner: Congratulations to Leah BedBird. Leah won the $500 VISA Gift Card given away by Hot Rocket Fireworks in 2008.
Here Julie Heckman of the American Pyrotechnics Assiciation talks about fireworks safety.
Kearney Hub - July 2nd, 2007
Call it a hobby, or a strange addiction, but for Craig Hamre his explosive infatuation with fireworks is a year-round endeavor.
The co-owner of Hot Rocket Fireworks, Hamre, 41, of Oxford has stands in seven locations in three states, including Kearney and Holdrege. Hamre not only sells the typical fireworks such as Black Cats, bottle rockets and artillery shells, but special varieties including 500-gram multishot aerial displays for neighborhood parties.
“I want to have a wide variety of effects for people to impress their neighbors,” Hamre said, chuckling. “Us guys, we like to outdo our neighbors when we shoot off our fireworks, and I want to help them do it.”
Hamre, his wife, Lisa, and eight children ranging in age from 2 to 16 make Hot Rocket a second job. Hamre travels the country each spring visiting fireworks distributor presentations where he watches displays and handpicks fireworks.
“I don’t sell anything I wouldn’t shoot off myself,” he said.
Lisa stays busy home-schooling the children and screen-printing about 2,000 T-shirts that are given away at all Hot Rocket stands.
Hamre started Hot Rocket Fireworks with his brother and brother-in-law in 2000 in his hometown of Mobridge, S.D. Hamre moved to Oxford four years ago and opened his first stand in Holdrege in 2006.
“I’ve always loved fireworks. I’ve been a pyro at heart ever since I was a little kid,” Hamre said.
The Hamre family shoots fireworks year-round. “Birthdays, anniversaries, we do a big shoot for our friends Christmas Eve. We’re always looking for a reason to shoot fireworks,” a grinning Hamre said. “We have a lot of fun with it as a family.”
Hamre’s oldest children, Kori, 16, and Jaried, 15, also have learned the fireworks business and can be seen working in the Kearney and Holdrege stands “The kids are way more involved than they want to be,” he joked. “We work it all year long.”
To most people, fireworks effects such as the willow, flying fish, comet and crossett don’t mean anything. But to Hamre’s 50 employees, it means knowing what customers want.
Hamre trains employees on safety as well as on product knowledge. The last two years he has invites employees to his rural home for a cookout where he shoots off various fireworks sold in the stands.
“If someone comes in looking for a nice, fluffy comet effect, I want my staff to say ‘Here it is.’ I’m kind of crazy about stuff like that.
Kim Schmidt, Kearney Hub
This spring we have seen over 400 fireworks shot off for demonstration purposes. Of those items, we have selected the best of the best for our locations. At Hot Rocket Fireworks we will only bring an item if we are impressed by it.
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