Fireworks Firm on a Short Fuse As Its Big Night on Delaware River Nears
By Paul Kurtz
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The company that presents the annual New Year's Eve fireworks display on Philadelphia's waterfront continues its work aboard a pair of barges at the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia, in preparation for a big and noisy night.
The crew, under show producer Ken Furstoss (far left in photo), has been working feverishly since Sunday, loading and wiring tens of thousands of explosive shells, each in its own launching mortar.
"We've got probably 5,500 per show -- individual devices," he notes.
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Furstoss says a computer will set off each of the pyrotechnics at the correct moment.
"Obviously the ten-inch shells are gonna be up high," he explains. "They're gonna be about 800 feet in the air. So, when we put different scenes and such together to the music, we want to make sure the whole sky is full from the ground up. We also have specialty effects that are considered 'nauticals,' which actually are shells that launch into the water and they produce their effect right out of the water."
And, in keeping with tradition, both shows -- at 6pm and 12 midnight -- will be choreographed to music that you can hear on KYW Newsradio 1060.
