WWLP

Putting together the fireworks display for Star Spangled Springfield

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – There’s a lot that goes into preparing for the Star Spangled Springfield Fireworks Display.

Eric Ingebrigtsen, a pyrotechnician at Fireworks by Grucci, said, “It’s a fascinating show. It’s going to be a very colorful fifteen minutes.” But it takes hours to create that color. 22News spoke with the Fireworks by Grucci crew on Monday morning about the process of creating the display.

David Van Buskirk, Chief Pyrotechnician at Fireworks by Grucci said, “We stage it, we get everything ready and then that’s why they close the bridge so we can work all night and the products will come up. And that’s when we start working and dropping the shells and laying out all the stuff out on the ground behind the Mass Mutual piece and we just hang out until showtime.”

David has worked on the Star Spangled Springfield display for the last 30 years. He says technological advances have helped make the preparation process easier and safer, especially when it comes time to launch.

David added, “We have a panel, it has all the buttons on it and the man holds, they call it a dead man switch, the shooter. He uses a probe and goes right down. He gets the cues over a headset. People hear the music, he hears the cues fire one fire two and so forth and that’s how it works.” This year, that’s Eric Ingebrigsten’s job.

Eric explained, “I feel it when I hit that first button, you can feel it, I feel the thrusts from being so close, the fireworks taking off. It’s just an amazing, amazing feeling.” And that’s just how they want folks to feel during tonight’s show… which is set to have a remarkable finale.”

He exclaimed, “Happy Fourth of July and come on down and see a fantastic show!”