Business is BOOMING for Crazy Bill’s Fireworks
If you're going to make fireworks part of your New Year's celebration, make sure to follow safe practices. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)
In Alabama, Crazy Bill is an institution.
For 35 years, people from one end of the state to the other have stepped into his little white roadside stores and walked out with bags of sparklers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, firecrackers and festival shells.
Crazy Bill’s sells lots of fireworks around holidays like New Year’s Eve. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)
The company name is a politically incorrect assessment of founder William Thomas Cairns, a lifelong Adamsville resident who his daughter admits is “a nut. He’s really funny.”
On a whim in 1981, Cairns gambled everything he owned as collateral for a purchase large enough to get a fireworks business off the ground. Trouble was, fireworks were illegal in Alabama.
“His attorney said, ‘You’re crazy, Bill!” said Pam Palmer, who is president of the company her father started.
Palmer can tell the story now that the statute of limitations has run out, but Crazy Bill’s Fireworks actually began out of her bedroom. Her father had owned Sign Builders Inc. for a decade when a customer’s check bounced for a purchase and Cairns was left with a truckload of fireworks as reimbursement. The family sold the illegal merchandise out of their house for July Fourth 1980.
Crazy Bill’s sells lots of fireworks around holidays like New Year’s Eve. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)
Cairns teamed with longtime Oxford Mayor Leon Smith to lobby for legalizing fireworks in Alabama. Gov. Fob James unexpectedly gave much-needed support to the legalization campaign, stemming from a serious childhood thumb injury from an illegal M-80 going off in his hand.
“The governor was very much for making it legal and safe,” said Palmer, who today is mayor of Adamsville.
After incorporating as a private company and opening a store in Forestdale soon after fireworks were legalized, Crazy Bill’s opened the next year in Adamsville, Inverness, Homewood and Prattville. By 2006, there were 116 outlets employing nearly 600 people across the state. The wholesale business spread across the Southeast and soon outgrew the 76,000-square-foot warehouse on Poplar Lane in Adamsville. Crazy Bill’s eventually needed two city blocks of storage and production space in Midfield.
Paid on a sales commission, many employees have operated the same Crazy Bill’s stores for years. Teachers and coaches often take the job because they are off duty on Independence Day and New Year’s Eve. Interesting salespeople through the years include Miss Alabama 2000 Jina Mitchell and Miss Wheelchair Alabama 2007 Tristan Wright.
“I still have my very first manager working with us, who is a preacher and now in his 80s,” Palmer said. “He just loves it. And it’s good pay.”
Palmer took leadership of Crazy Bill’s in 1993. She is president of the offshoot ventures Brothers Fireworks and CBF Advertising, the latter of which buys “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of advertising on TV and radio and in printed publications each year. Many family members are employed by the company, operate fireworks stands or help put on about 50 fireworks shows each year.
Because July Fourth brings in 95 percent of the company’s annual income, nothing interferes with Crazy Bill’s fireworks sales on the holidays. His first great-grandson was born on the Fourth, so that birthday is always celebrated days later. A favorite aunt died just before New Year’s Eve, but most of the Cairn’s family was unable to attend the funeral.
“Our joke has always been that if you die on the Fourth or New Year’s Eve, you get buried the next week,” Palmer said. “But our family members actually have a legal document we signed that Crazy Bill’s won’t close because of one of our deaths on those holidays.”
Although no longer involved with the day-to-day business, Cairns, 72, still enjoys dropping in on the warehouses and stores. His favorite holiday pastime is driving through poor neighborhoods to give away fireworks.
“He grew up very poor; so did I,” Palmer said. “He knows what it’s like to not get the things that aren’t necessities.”
Palmer is active in the National Fireworks Association, the American Pyrotechnics Association and the National Council on Fireworks Safety. Ten years ago she started the Alabama Fireworks Association and remains its president, trying to bridge the legal gaps for small operators who can’t afford representation at the state or federal levels. She received a joint resolution from the Alabama Legislature in 2006 for her work to protect children by promoting fireworks safety.
“We put safety rules in every bag of fireworks; that’s really important,” said Palmer, who is a registered nurse. “Children shouldn’t touch fireworks. Crazy Bill’s is really big into child safety. My children and grandchildren didn’t touch fireworks until they were 18.”
Although Crazy Bill’s underwent a “major cutback” in 2008 as the Great Recession took hold, there are still about 40 stores in Alabama. Palmer said there’s nothing crazy about having fun with fireworks.
“If you do what you’re supposed to do with them, they can’t hurt you,” she said. “Read the rules and you won’t get hurt.”
Bring the New Year in Safely
- Obey all local laws
- Read the cautionary labels
- Only operators 18 or older
- Always wear safety glasses
Fireworks and safety should always go together. (iStock)
- Alcohol and fireworks do not mix
- Never carry fireworks in your pocket
- Only use fireworks outdoors in a clear area
- A responsible adult should always supervise
- Light one firework at a time and quickly move away
- Never shoot fireworks from a metal or glass container
- Have a bucket of water and charged water hose nearby
- Never relight a “dud.” Wait 20 minutes and soak it in a bucket of water
- Dispose of used fireworks by wetting them and place in a metal trash can away from any building or combustible materials until the next day.
