Hi Chris,

It looks like the problem is in the first tab. The maximum number of particles is set to 1. This will prevent more than one from existing at the same time. 

If you are trying to have a single item going up and then exploding into a shower of sparks, you'll actually need to animate a single item with that motion. However, you can designate it to be the particle emitter itself and then make it disappear with a little animation sleight of hand.

Mark