Crowds filled the Mathews High School football field Friday night and others watched the annual 4th of July fireworks show from a distance, a pyrotechnic display that is quickly gaining a regional reputation for its exceptional quality.

Cars filled the parking lots at the high school and the county park and spilled out along Buckley Hall Road from Lynne’s Family Restaurant at Ward’s Corner to Linda’s Diner at Lover’s Lane. In addition, many people parked at Thomas Hunter Middle School and rode shuttle buses to the high school.

“It was a wonderful show and everyone said it’s amazing how a little county such as Mathews can have such a show,” said board of supervisors’ chairman Charles Ingram, who is in charge of the annual event.

Ingram estimated the crowd on-site at 1,500 to 2,000 people, but there were many people who watched from afar in their yards or in the parking lots of closed businesses.

There was a minor mishap after the show, said Ingram, when a box thought to be empty that had been left in a volunteer’s truck at parks and rec caught on fire. He said a spark must have gotten in the box, which still had some fireworks in it. Although the fire truck that was on stand-by for the fireworks responded, Ingram said the fireworks crew stomped most of the fire out with their feet, and that the pickup truck containing the box wasn’t damaged.

But that small incident didn’t detract from the “splendid display,” said Ingram, adding “everything went off fine.”

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