Broad of shoulder, with the muscular swagger of habitual weightlifters, Scott Buccieri and Rich Riedel are part of a human firewall protecting the crowds at fireworks shows.
When big rockets pepper the night sky with falling fire, when pyrotechnic special effects punctuate concerts or theater shows, they make sure that that everything goes up — and, more importantly, down — the way it’s supposed to.
“We look at how the wiring fits over the mortar tube, how it’s organized, and how the mortar tubes are secured,” Buccieri says.
“Those mortar tubes have to be solid. If someone bumped into them, or if high winds came up, the mortars can’t move.”
Just in case, local fire departments keep a truck stationed nearby. One year, at Glendale’s July 3 fireworks show, a misfire started a small brush fire.
That was more easily fixed than the 2008 fireworks catastrophe when a flaming wire and debris injured 40 people in the crowd at a WrestleMania event in Orlando, Fla. An onlooker compared the scene to a war zone.
“There are similarities,” said Buccieri, a veteran.
“Especially with the concussion you can feel inside your body when large shells go off. But here, people are happy. And there, everyone is scared to death. Most of the time in combat, there aren’t large explosions. Although there are illumination rounds used for combat at night. Really, really bright light that hangs in the air quite awhile. That is very fireworks-like.” Claire Martin
