Cardboard casings, plastic containers, charred fuses and other pyrotechnic junk littered San Francisco’s Aquatic Park beach following a Super Bowl 50 fireworks show, and federal workers filled four 50-gallon trash cans while cleaning it.
National Park Service Lynn Cullivan said "quite a bit of debris" washed up on the beach Sunday morning, and staff spent several hours removing it from the along the pristine bay. The San Francisco Chronicle was the first to report the story.
"We don't know where it came from," Cullivan said, "but there was a lot of it — so one presumes it was generated by a large fireworks show."
There was indeed a large fireworks show on Saturday night, put on by Macy’s, an official Super Bowl 50 Host Committee partner. The fireworks are set off on barges under the Bay Bridge, about three miles away from the beach park in the Marina District.
Macy’s spokesman Orlando Veras on Thursday emailed NBC Bay Area a statement that read, in part, "Macy's along with Pyro Spectaculars, our pyrotechnic partner, are investigating the conditions that caused debris to appear. It is likely this occurrence is the result of an unusual combination of wind, tide and currents, and we are working to implement further safeguards to minimize any impact on the bay and shoreline for the upcoming display."
Veras also touted his California-based fireworks team as some of the most "trusted and responsible experts in the field with a long history of producing local displays and many of San Francisco's annual celebrations" including the Fourth of July show. He said Macy's would address "all concerns to ensure another great celebration of the big game." The next Macy's Fireworks show is Friday at 10 p.m. in San Francisco.
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The Super Bowl will be held Sunday at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. San Francisco, a city 45 miles away, has been hosting many of the pre-party activities.