Jul. 5—The explosion was heard a mile away and blew out the windows of surrounding homes.
One neighbor rushed her children into a back room as the house shook and framed pictures fell off the wall. Then came the pops, she said, like the sound of fireworks.
Gregory Clark, badly burned, walked out of his obliterated garage across the street — pieces of brick and roof strewn about the property. He tried to get into his vehicle, but arriving firefighters stopped him.
The neighbor believed the 60-year-old was trying to get the vehicle away from the encroaching flames to prevent more damage or injury.
“I knew him. That’s just who he was,” she said. “He was a good man.”
Whatever happened, the neighbor said, she is certain it wasn’t intentional.
Clark, a longtime pyrotechnician with Western Enterprises, who ran firework shows across the Southwest, died Thursday after being airlifted to a burn center at Texas Tech University Medical Center in Lubbock.
Jason Clark, of Rio Rancho, said he and his son made the five-hour drive to his brother’s bedside. Clark said his brother never regained consciousness, “But I sat next to him as he passed away.”
Another Western Enterprises employee who was at the home with Clark was taken to the burn center and treated for his injuries.
Jason Clark said his brother was meticulous and careful, never bringing the fireworks — which he called “product” — into his home and forcing anyone who came within 100 feet of it to give up their cellphones and smartwatches.
“I wanted to say that he wasn’t a bad person. I didn’t want everybody to vilify him… And this accident was — I just don’t see how it happened, but it did, and I’ll accept those facts,” he said.
The Phoenix Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating the explosion and no wrongdoing has been alleged by federal authorities. The ATF said in a statement that they had dispatched special agents to the scene and “they will conduct an origin and cause report at the conclusion of the investigation.”
“Due to this investigation being active and ongoing we cannot provide any additional information at this time,” according to the statement.
Jason Clark said an ATF inspector told him the majority of the fireworks found at the scene were stored in a box truck parked on the street and not involved in the explosion. Employees with Western Enterprises came to Clark’s home as the blaze was being put out and took the large quantity of fireworks from the box truck.
The Oklahoma-based company said Saturday that the ATF contacted them after the blast and asked them to “immediately retrieve the professional fireworks which were being stored in the vehicle parked near the incident.”
“We are all devastated by the tragic incident involving our contract technician. Greg was a long-time seasonal team member who had become a friend to many at Western Enterprises,” Jim Burnett, president of Western Enterprises, said in a statement. “He will be deeply missed by the entire Western family.”
Burnett went on to say that it was aware surrounding homes were damaged and “no neighborhood should be subjected to this type of event.”
“The presence of professional-grade fireworks in a residential setting is strictly prohibited under federal regulations and Western Enterprises’ company policies,” according to the statement. “Western Enterprises is cooperating fully with local law enforcement and regulatory authorities as the investigation continues. At this time, we do not have an explanation for how or why the vehicle and materials ended up at that location. As a family-owned company with a 50-year history and a strong safety record, Western Enterprises is committed to understanding the full circumstances surrounding this tragedy and supporting all investigative efforts.”
Albuquerque Fire Rescue said that firefighters responded around 1:40 p.m. to an explosion in the 9400 block of Woodland NE, northeast of Moon and Menaul, and doused the flames within an hour. For a time, the Albuquerque police bomb squad could be seen outside the home.
The other Western employee with Clark during the explosion told his brother that they were working on firework fuses for the city of Rio Rancho’s Fourth of July show when Gregory Clark asked him to fetch something from his truck.
The man told Jason Clark that, as he left the garage, he heard a loud pop and ducked at the sound. Then a much larger blast went off behind him — it blew off the garage door and busted down a brick wall.
‘He stuck with it’
Jason Clark said his brother started out of high school as a welder, working on airplane fuselages while making sculptures as a hobby. His metal creations — Kokopelli, lizards and roadrunners — now dot the yards of relatives.
Twenty years ago, Gregory Clark tried his hand at pyrotechnics with a fireworks show at a Christian youth festival in Colorado. Jason Clark said, “It was something that he was good at, and when he was good at something, he stuck with it.”
From there, he said, Gregory Clark worked with Western Enterprises, doing shows in Texas, New Mexico and Colorado until he became a lead pyrotechnician. Jason Clark would travel with his brother to shows, sometimes with his children in tow.
The Eastern New Mexico News interviewed Clark in 2015 as he prepared for the Smoke on the Water July 4 show in Clovis. He told the News that they were setting off 900 to 1,000 fireworks — explaining how they used sand to weigh down the boxes holding the munitions to keep them “secure and safe.”
Jason Clark said his brother would use a Western Enterprises property in Algodones to store and set up the fireworks. “In the years that I have gone to see his shows and gone to see him prep these shows and watch him build these fireworks, he has never, once, ever brought product to his house,” he said.
When Jason Clark went to his brother’s home Wednesday, fire inspectors walked him through the wreckage, which he described as “unbelievable.” “The blast must have been so big — the cinder block walls had been just blown down and the roof was gone,” he said.
“A large gun safe … had just melted to the point where the metal on the outside was gone… and when we opened them, everything was incinerated,” Jason Clark said. “… The only thing left was the barrels.”
A neighbor showed Jason Clark doorbell camera video of the explosion. Absent, he said, were the colors: the reds, blues and purples often seen when a fireworks warehouse catches fire.
“In Greg’s house, you didn’t see any of that,” he said. “You just saw orange flames and black smoke.”
Jason Clark said he expected the neighborhood to be up in arms, looking for someone to blame, when he arrived Wednesday. But it was just the opposite.
“They all came to me and asked me how he was doing. And they all told me stories of things that he had done for them, even the house next to him that burnt and had severe damage — she told me how he had remodeled her kitchen for virtually no cost,” he said.
When he went to the site Saturday morning, he found memorial signs and flowers hung on the fence surrounding the home. Jason Clark said his eyes filled with tears at the sight.
“It just it amazes me how — I live in a neighborhood where I might know two or three of my neighbors, whereas in the past, everybody knew everybody,” Jason Clark said. “But in his neighborhood, everybody does know everybody, and they all came out for him.”