Fireworks America

Volunteered to help the pyro crew with set up and tear down for the display in Sunnyvale. There's lots of hard labour involved. The control setup is as simple as possible - each shell, or string of shells, is wired to a rail set beside the wooden racks into which the shells in the firing guns are loaded. Each rail is connected to the firing desk. To fire a shell, the operator leans on the dead man switch and completes the circuit powered by the batteries.

There were about 2000 3 inch shells in this setup, plus cakes (boxes of 100 1 inch shells fired all at once) and roman candles. The crew, wearing helmets, fireproof jackets, and safety glasses, is allowed to stay much closer to the launch than the general public - getting a earthshaking view of the display almost directly overhead.