The Show Behind the Fireworks

Nobody said show business was easy.

Wilting beneath an unforgiving sun, smothered in sunscreen, with wet towels dangling from their heads and sweat dripping from their bodies, the entertainers preparing their show at Bellis Park in Buena Park on Thursday were not your average performers: They were wiring the explosives for that night’s fireworks show.

“It’s a really big thrill when a show goes well and you hear the oohs and ahhs,” said Pat Donnelly, the crew’s director. “The adrenaline really flows because you’ve worked so hard to get there.”

A state-licensed pyrotechnician, Donnelly, 60, has been a wizard behind the curtain for displays around Southern California since 1997.

Buena Park’s show, which Donnelly estimated cost about $12,000, was programmed by Pyro Spectaculars of Rialto, which is involved in some of the nation’s largest displays. Pyro contracts Donnelly, who gathers a crew to help him. The company gives them a script, showing when each firework is to go off, and a recording of the music that will accompany the 19-minute show.

Donnelly began meeting with police and fire and other city officials in May to plan the show. The physical setup usually takes a day and a half.

Behind the park’s baseball field is the “hot zone,” where all the fireworks are prepared. The explosives, resembling miniature hot-air balloons wrapped in brown paper, are packed into cylindrical mortars, or “guns.”

The size of the shell determines the size of the gun that launches it, and the altitude it will reach. A 4-inch-diameter shell, in a 4-inch gun, travels 400 feet. A 1-inch shell, only 100 feet. This year’s show contained more than 1,800 shots.

Wooden troughs packed with sand hold numbered guns. An “electric match” runs from the firework to a frame connected to a cable, which in turn runs to a firing board.

The fireworks are activated with conductors touched by a wand. The person who fires -- the “fire hawk” -- wears headphones that pipe the show’s music into the left ear and cues for firing in the right ear. It’s a great job -- except that the fire hawk is so busy coordinating everything, he or she never gets to see the show.

“I don’t mind; it’s a thrill to do something different,” said this year’s fire hawk, Deborah Donnelly-Boyd, 38, a Long Beach teacher and the operator’s daughter. “And you can see them out of the side of your eye.”

Another person monitors which explosives fail. Undetonated fireworks are soaked in water for at least two hours to ensure that they do not go off.

The rest of the crew, made up of electricians, policemen and doctors, must keep 100 feet away during the show. They must also wear protective gear, such as helmets and ear plugs.

“When these things start going off, it looks like a war zone,” Donnelly said.

A county fire inspector checks out the setup, making sure everything is up to code. Donnelly also runs several tests before show time, making sure the wiring is correct.

“In God we trust, but everything else we check,” he said.

The dangers are many. A shell could “flowerpot,” or explode inside the gun. A “low burst” is a detonation only a few feet into the air. Even carrying the fireworks to the field can be dangerous: Dragging the boxes can create static and set them off.

But the crew members in Buena Park said they have never encountered any major problems and maintain that their precautions keep risk to a minimum. And even when there are minor problems, such as ill-timed explosions, the crew keeps a cool head.

“It’s show business,” said Donnelly-Boyd. “And the show must go on.”