{"id":98903,"date":"2018-07-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-launches-crowd-pleasing-fourth-of-july-fireworks\/"},"modified":"2018-07-05T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T15:00:00","slug":"cortez-launches-crowd-pleasing-fourth-of-july-fireworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-launches-crowd-pleasing-fourth-of-july-fireworks\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez launches crowd-pleasing Fourth of July fireworks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:0f8b92ef-4d6f-473b-b4f0-127ecb638c1b --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XhmYZSPFdVM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><hardreturn>People came to Cortez from all over Montezuma County and beyond to watch Wednesday\u2019s Fourth of July fireworks display, one of the few in Southwest Colorado that weren\u2019t canceled this year.<\/hardreturn><\/p>\n<p>Parque de Vida, where the display was held, began to fill up with spectators hours before sunset. Families held picnics and volleyball games near the skate park and in Centennial Park across the road, and merchants sold food and glow sticks from tents around the park\u2019s perimeter.<\/p>\n<p>Organizer Keenan Ertel delivered about 45 minutes of explosions on the ground and in the air, and unlike last year\u2019s display, it wasn\u2019t interrupted by fire.<\/p>\n<p>Ertel spent about two weeks preparing the array of fireworks he launched on Wednesday, his daughter Kinsey Ertel said. The fireworks were placed in the middle of Parque de Vida, which was surrounded by tape to keep spectators out, and wired to an electronic detonator on a nearby truck.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, one of Ertel\u2019s many aerial shells exploded on the ground, causing a small fire that delayed the show.<\/p>\n<p>With a fire ban in effect across the county and numerous wildfires burning in Southwest Colorado, local firefighters didn\u2019t take any chances with this year\u2019s display. Half the Cortez Recreation Center\u2019s parking lot was taken up with trucks from the Cortez, Towaoc and Lewis-Arriola fire departments. Ute Mountain Ute Fire Chief John Trocheck said Cortez and Towaoc firefighters provided backup at each other\u2019s fireworks displays because of \u201cthe drier conditions\u201d this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFireworks, you can\u2019t predict,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a dangerous thing to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But most spectators before the show didn\u2019t seem worried about fire danger.<\/p>\n<p>Natisha Johnson spent the time before the show selling \u201cpiccadilly,\u201d or pickle-flavored, snow cones out of a tent. A resident of Red Mesa, Arizona, she said she\u2019s been coming to the Cortez fireworks for several years, although this was her first year as a vendor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo far, out of all the fireworks shows I\u2019ve seen, this is the best one,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Montezuma County commissioner candidate Jim Candelaria used the show as an opportunity to do some campaigning, handing out glow sticks to the spectators along with some other members of his campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The group said they met several people from La Plata County, where the Durango fireworks were canceled because of the fire danger.<\/p>\n<p>Cortez resident Jennifer Hope \u2013 who came decked out in red, white and blue necklaces and a headband with star-shaped antennae \u2013 said she\u2019s been to the town fireworks more times than she can count.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like the community event, the families that come \u2013 it\u2019s just such fun to watch,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>This year, she said, the crowd seemed smaller than it has in the past.<\/p>\n<p>Kinsey Ertel also said before the show that she hadn\u2019t seen the growth in attendance that she expected after many nearby towns canceled their fireworks.<\/p>\n<p>Those who did come, though, expressed their appreciation loudly enough to be heard over the booming fireworks. Each explosion and ground display was met with cheers and applause from the crowd around Parque de Vida.<\/p>\n<p>Ertel delivered rapid-fire missiles, fountains of sparks, blinding flashes and the occasional miniature mushroom cloud of a gas mine, all of them reflected in the Parque de Vida pond and in the solar panels on the Recreation Center roof.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you, city of Cortez!\u201d one woman shouted during the fireworks show.<\/p>\n<p>The display, which was funded by private donations, went smoothly. Unauthorized fireworks remain illegal throughout Montezuma County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fireworks draw viewers from all over Four Corners area<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,510,13,445,598],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-98903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-festive-event-including-carnival","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-public-holiday"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98903"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=98903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}