Maroon (thing)

A Maroon is a pyrotechnic effect that is basically a firecracker on steroids.

About maroons

Maroons are small (you can usually hide them in your fist - although this is not recommended if you like your hands) premanufactured devices. The lower classes are made of cardboard, and the higher classes are plastic. They are all filled with an explosive powder, usually smokeless gunpowder or low-smoke versions or black powder.

Maroons are ignited with electronic fuses built into the effect.

Maroon classes:

• Class 1 - Maroons class 1 are not particularily scary. They are encapsuled in cardboard, and are about as loud as a medium firecracker.
• Class 2 - Maroons class 2 are a bit more fun. They usually come in film cannisters. When it is set off the lid gets blasted off, preventing the plastic from fragmenting. They make about as much noise as a light firearm
• Classses 3 and upwards (to 5 or 6, depending on manufacturer) - Maroons in these classes are usually strong explosives (nitro or cyclonite (RDX) based). They can be everything from medium-strong (think shotgun) to extremely loud (mortar explosions), and are usually only used outdoors. Classes 3 and upwards need to be confined to blast tanks* to avoid injuring or killing people.

*) When I did the pyrotechnics course, our instructor told us about what had happened to one of his friends when he (accidentally) had set off a class 4 maroon without a blast tank. To cut a long story short - even though he was about 20 feet away from the maroon, the doctors had to dig a piece of plastic from 2 inches into his calf. Convinced? Good.