Details Drive Those Who Make the Holiday a Blast

If Doris Leichtamer walked with precise movements in the parking lot of Anaheim Stadium on Thursday, it was with reason.

Leichtamer was part of a crew that set up more than 700 mortars and other fancy pyrotechnics for tonight’s Fourth of July fireworks show at Anaheim Stadium.

“There’s no horseplay allowed, drinking or smoking when you’re setting these up,” said Leichtamer, an employee of Pyro Spectaculars Inc. in Rialto. “And, you never, never put your head over the muzzle, because when it goes, it only goes one way: up.”

Ron Smith, the company’s project director, said that at least two loads of mortars and explosive shells will be trucked in and unloaded in the north end of the stadium’s parking lot which will serve as ground zero for the performance.

After tonight’s Angel game, Smith will flip a switch on a computer, beginning a 20-minute pyrotechnic salute to the nation’s independence. It will end to the sounds of “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

“The highlight of the show will be the grand finale,” said Jim Souza, a fourth-generation pyrotechnician and president of the company, which produced the opening and closing for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. “Our own handmade fireworks will go off, firing at five different positions right to the tenth of a second.”

Preparation began months ago, Souza said, with ideas he first drew by hand, then put into a computer.

“First we have to select music, and it’s a matter of imagining how to interpret music with the fireworks,” he said, “and that inspires certain visions in my mind.”

A new display, and one that worked perfectly Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, will be a shell that produces a smiley face, and another that creates a glittering bow tie encircled by a ring.

Some of tonight’s show will include the songs, “Coming to America” and “Living in America.”

Souza is the designer behind the 100th Statue of Liberty anniversary, the 50th birthday celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge and two Hong Kong New Year festivals.

The company has produced fireworks shows without a hitch at Anaheim Stadium since it opened.

But in this business, accidents are always on the minds of the employees.

Mortar racks can fall over and erratic winds can disperse sparks over a wide area, said Thomas Shewman, an Anaheim fire inspector who is the on-site monitor.

“The force behind some of these big shells can make it go up 800 feet in the air, and that’s a huge explosive charge,” Shewman said. “That’s why when a permit is sought, we ask for a plan showing what they intend to do for the show.”

A permit had to be obtained because fireworks are illegal in Anaheim, Shewman said.

For fireworks buffs, the powder charge in an 8-inch shell is roughly the size of a large fist, enough to launch a 25-pound shell hundreds of feet in the air.

“That’s about the equivalent of 1,000 M-80 firecrackers,” Smith said.

With all that firepower, city regulations demand 24-hour security and other precautions. For example, if a mortar fails to detonate or a problem develops during the performance, Smith has a kill button.

“That enables me to stop the detonations until they can be physically checked,” Smith said. “Meanwhile, the music and the computer sequence continues. When it’s fixed, I just press the kill button again and the pyrotechnics start to fire again in sequence with the music without missing a beat.”

For Leichtamer, 39, her role as a crew member offers her only part-time employment. She is a full-time second officer flying a cargo plane for a commercial airline.

“I do this because it’s fun,” she said.

Another worker, Janine Barnhart, a loss prevention specialist for J.C. Penny’s in Laguna Hills, said working with pyrotechnics is “amazing.

“The setup and production is a lot like show business, and it’s exciting.”