Setting up for sparkling show on the Fourth

Sometime around 4:30 Saturday morning, a truck arrived in Seattle crammed with more than 2,000 fireworks shells — including the 10-inch-diameter kind that can shoot as high as 1,200 feet, and spread fireworks 1,000 feet wide.

All those shells added up to over 3 tons of explosives that will be used for a 20-minute show Sunday over Lake Union, a Seattle tradition that this year almost didn't happen. Then local businesses and individuals donated the $500,000 needed for the Family 4th at Lake Union.

The city of Seattle doesn't want a truck loaded with explosives parked in town. So, using two drivers, the truck was driven straight through from Sacramento, Calif., (with a brief stopover in Olympia) to get to Seattle exactly the day before the Fourth of July show.

Then the shells were loaded onto two big iron barges at Foss Maritime at the Ship Canal, and the barges were towed to Lake Union in front of Gas Works Park.

With the show's financial problem solved at least for this year, it was a well-rehearsed routine by the individuals — the pyrotechnicians — actually preparing for the shows.

Jon Berson is the lead pyrotechnician for Pyro Spectaculars of California. This is the 16th year the company has been contracted to do the Lake Union show.

Berson said that he's put together 400 shows in his decade-and-a-half with the company. He never tires of fireworks.

"I smelled the smoke," he said, a phrase common in the industry.

Setting up the fireworks can get routine, he said, such as connecting all those mortars correctly with thousands of feet of electric wire.

On Saturday, Berson was overseeing a dozen workers, one of whom held up a shell, which, like all the others, was made in China.

The warning label from the Chinese manufacturer was quite literal: "Light fuse and get away."

But some aspects of a fireworks show are never routine, such as when a 10-inch shell goes off, said Berson.

"You feel it in your chest," he said. "The shock wave resonates through the whole barge and it vibrates."

Standing near Berson was J.J. Ennis, who always carries a walkie-talkie and cellphone, and coordinates work between the shore and the two iron barges.

"You know what's amazing, it's when during the show there is a momentary quiet, and you can hear the people on the shore going, "Yeah, wow!' " Ennis said.

"And then seeing that street [he pointed to one of the east-west streets that has a good view of the show] and it's just packed with people. And then you see traffic stopping on I-5!"

Synchronized music for the fireworks show will be simulcast by KIRO-FM.

It was that station's morning talk-show host, Dave Ross, who is credited along with local restaurateur Tom Douglas, for the campaign that brought the fireworks show back from cancellation.

Washington Mutual, which had sponsored the Lake Union show since 2002, had collapsed, and its successor JPMorgan Chase agreed to fund the event, but just for one year, 2009. One Reel, which puts on the show, could not find another sponsor.

On April 1, reading the headline that the fireworks show was canceled, Ross talked about it on his show.

"I thought it was ridiculous and didn't make any sense that Tacoma, Bellevue, all have fireworks, and Seattle wasn't going to have one," he remembered. "I said on the air, why couldn't we all chip in and do something about it.

"Tom Douglas happened to be listening and he called in, and I put him on after the next break. Tom said he'd kick in some money, $5,000. He's five times as rich as I am, and I said I'd kick in $1,000."

Then the astounding fundraiser took on a life of its own.

"Charlie's Produce, that was this tiny company when I came here 32 years ago, and now has grown into this mega produce company, they pledged $10,000. When all those companies started calling, we went into full telethon mode," Ross said.

Microsoft and Starbucks contributed $125,000 each as matching grants. Paul Allen's Vulcan offered $50,000.

From the time he talked about the fireworks show the morning of April 1, said Ross, it took 23 hours and 50 minutes to come up with the $500,000.

He said the thought of canceling the fireworks struck a chord because, "It was like giving in to the recession. People wanted to make a statement. We're not going to give in. Times are tough, but we can do this."

And Seattle did.

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com