It was early in the morning on June 12, 1990, when then-Dispatch staff photographer Keith Gaskin got the call that an explosion had ripped apart the Mid South Pyrotechnics firework plant on Concord Road, leaving a smoking crater at the site.
He didn’t know it yet, but the boom was felt as far away as Starkville and left two people dead. The cause? A spark from a piece of electrical equipment inside the factory that morning that ignited the gunpowder being stored there.
“I was working at the newspaper at the time, and I was over at Gardner (Boulevard),” Gaskin recalled. “I was out taking pictures at a car lot or something for our advertising department and got that call. I was probably one of the only few in the media that got in and was out there taking pictures.”
More than three decades later — and just a few miles north of the site of the explosion — Apex Ammunition hopes to run a shotgun shell plant in the old Maxxim Medical property, located on 7.8 acres off Yorkville Park Square, northeast of Valmet and adjacent to the old city industrial park.
Gaskin, now the Columbus mayor, said safety concerns arose during negotiations with Apex over buying the property the city jointly owns with Lowndes County. In light of the infamous fireworks explosion, how safe is it to make ammo in the city limits?
Between federal regulations on safety protocols and how much the shotgun shell making process differs from the more volatile fireworks manufacturing, Gaskin said the company has adequately addressed that question.
“The main question we asked them was safety,” Gaskin said. “We actually mentioned the incident (the firework explosion) and then they just immediately went into detail about their safety procedures, and all the things that they are regulated to do to prevent such an incident.”
The production of small arms ammunition, which includes shotgun shells, is regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. The regulations dictate that low-explosive powders, the ones used by Apex to produce its shells, must be stored in large sealed metal containers lined with an inch of flame-retardant-coated wood and rubber to prevent any sparks or leaks of the powder. Each storage container must also be separated by 12 meters to avoid spreading fire in the event of an accident.
“Ammunition is regulated pretty heavily,” Apex Chief Operations Officer and co-founder Jared Lewis said. “So, we have pretty stringent guidelines that we have to go by in order to run (the factory) safely.”
Lewis told The Dispatch the company also takes further measures to maintain its zero-accident record. Its gunpowder will be kept in separate rooms from the production line. It uses laser sensor technology to shut down the factory if any accident occurs, whether that be a worker putting their hand too close to a machine or a flaw detected inside a shell.
He also noted the type of gunpowder used in the Apex shells is far less volatile than the piles of black gunpowder that caused the old firework factory to explode all those years ago. Plus, far less powder is used to make a shotgun shell than a firework.
“Fireworks are way more dangerous than what we do,” he said. “We’re talking about apples and oranges here. You know this is a very, very controlled environment. We follow the rules when we load shells from a safety standpoint for the consumer.”
The fireworks plant reportedly stored 10,000 pounds of gunpowder, and while Lewis declined to tell the total amount of gunpowder Apex would store at its new facility, he said each of their ATF-regulated gunpowder containers would contain 400 pounds.
In addition to those rules and regulations presented by the ATF, Apex will also need to obtain a recommendation from the city planning commission and approval from the city council before being allowed to produce its ammo at the old Maxxim building, according to the city’s industrial zone coding laws.
Lowndes County Board of Supervisors president Trip Hairston said during negotiations between Apex, the city and the county, ATF regulations were brought up several times and that he has confidence in Apex’s ability to run a safe operation in the new space.
“When they get a certificate of occupancy, they’re going to have to go through the permitting process anyway,” Hairston said. “So if there’s an issue with that, then that would come up during that time, but I’m sure they’ve done their homework.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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