“In the old days we’d use a road flare to light the fireworks, cross our fingers, touch the fuse, duck, and hope it got out of the gun,” Garden State Fireworks expert John Grimes tells me.
Grimes is in charge of putting Monday night’s fireworks display along the Santa Barbara waterfront together for the New Jersey-based company, which has been in business since the Augustine Santore family opened their first fireworks plant in 1891.
Since the 1970s, the company has been run by two of Santore’s grand kids, August and Nunzio, and has expanded to include branches in Nevada.
For the Santa Barbara show, most of the fireworks are assembled behind the tall mounds of sand on West Beach that hide them from view of Cabrillo Boulevard.
“But today it is all computer based,” Rodney Bollinger explains to me as he pulls off the heavy plastic cover that has been protecting the fireworks from the nearby fog.
Bollinger is one of several local crew members who assists Grimes with the setup. He has been in the business for what he estimates is more than 50 years, which means he’s seen the evolution from road flare ignitions to the electronic light shows that hallmark today’s flashy displays.
Launching Cannon Balls Not Rockets
Gingerly he pulls one of the fireworks out of a thick-walled tube. It’s not like any fireworks I’ve seen before, looking more like a wadded up ball of clay about four inches in diameter.
I’m thinking rockets being shot out of a cannon not a blob-like cannon ball being launched up into the sky.
Bollinger points out the two wires leading out of it. Inside it is a fuse that has a time delay that determines how long it will take to ignite once it’s launched.
Turning it over, he shows me a pouch of what he adds — the gun powder that will launch the firework high into the sky.
Sophisticated Wiring Networks
When the fuse will be ignited is determined by what might be called an “electronic match” — signals sent from several hundred feet away and routed along a complicated set of wiring harnesses — in a sequence pre-determined by software programmed thousands of miles away that will orchestrate a series of concussive explosions of sound and color over the Santa Barbara harbor.
At first glance the system looks fairly basic. There are perhaps two dozen sets of wooden racks that house the fireworks, with rows of plastic tubes tilted slightly towards the ocean that contain hundreds of the individual fireworks.
These in turn are wired to sets of what Bollinger calls “modules,” which are wired to the firing panel that houses the computer program that will drive the show.
But as I watch John and Rodney painstakingly connect the wires from each of the fireworks to a corresponding location on the module, I’m realizing the complexity that will allow complete control over when each will be fired.
A form of syncopation that can be programmed to the sound of music or for emotional response.
Wiring the Racks
After all of the plastic covering has been removed, Bollinger and Grimes start the mind-numbing job of wiring the fireworks to the modules. They use party tents to cover the racks as they move along, both for the shade and to ensure that the connections are correctly made.
As Bollinger untwists the wiring harness, he calls out the firework code. John then echoes the number and makes sure it is connected to the corresponding code on the module.
The work is tedious. Each module will connect to as many as a hundred of the fireworks. As they move along, the number of wires continues to add up, with the potential for them getting tangled increasing by the minute.
Finally, as they finish with one row, they get up carefully, set the module down on the ground gently, and move on.
It will be another few hours until all of the wiring has been completed.
Waiting Till Dark
Once the modules have been connected to the wiring panel, all that remains is the long wait till dusk comes and the show can begin.
The program is estimated to last 20 mintues. Bollinger tells me that will turn out to cost about $1,500 to $2,000 a minute and well worth it.
