Behind the scenes at the fireworks show

George Erdman's firework shows typically feature a "mad minute" - a quick succession of smaller shells fired toward the end of the night.

At intervals elsewhere during his displays, he drops the tempo to highlight the most dramatic effects, or those that linger longer overhead.

There are fast-breaking "dahlias" and bright strobes that streak skyward; broad "crosettes" that split into spikes, each of which divides yet again; percussive "salutes," and "willows" that "last forever," like glittering waterfalls in the dark.

Pacing is the key to an artful exhibition, said Erdman, a longtime pyrotechnic operator who has choreographed the annual Independence Day fireworks displays in Healdsburg and Windsor for more than a decade.

"I try to make it busy in the sky all the time," without rushing shell launches and "stepping on" the most dramatic fireworks, said Erdman, who works by day as a senior air quality specialist for the Northern Sonoma County Air Pollution Control District.

Erdman, his second-in-command, Santa Rosa electrician Noah Fell, and their crew are in crunch time, as are many like them across the nation.

July Fourth celebrations no longer reside on a single date but stretch on for several days in different venues in a given region, making for tight schedules for people like Erdman who are licensed to run fireworks shows.

The excitement makes it worthwhile for true junkies, they said. "There's a real juice for shooting shells," Erdman said.

But the days are long, with painstaking set-ups, inspections and careful supervision aimed at ensuring safety and regulatory compliance, and limiting the risk of something going wrong.

Erdman, 66, and Fell, who is positioned to take over Erdman's direction of the two North County shows, traditionally run Windsor's Independence Day spectacle on July 3 and Healdsburg's on July 4.

Like most fireworks displays in Sonoma County, both are supplied by Pyro Spectaculars, which this week will produce more than 400 shows in California, show producer Matthew Gilfillan said.

The company was also behind the high-tech extravaganza that lit up the Golden Gate Bridge on its 75th anniversary in May. Fell was on the crew of 75 for that one, Gilfillan said.

But the $14,500 Windsor show is relatively low-tech by by comparison, even with the annual "Red, White & BOOM!" fireworks display Wednesday night at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds - a computer-programmed "sky symphony" choreographed to music at close to twice the cost.

The equipment for the Windsor show consists mainly of wood racks nailed together to hold rows of five or 10 polycarbonate tubes that serve as the muzzles from which individual 3- and 4-inch fireworks shells are launched into the sky over Windsor High School.

Erdman's layout has the single-layer racks placed end-to-end in three staggered rows, with a shooter assigned to each row to light the fuses one shell at a time.

Computer- and electronic-triggered shells are more expensive, but Erdman said hand-launched shows are somehow "purer pyrotechnics" anyway, and allow him to adjust the show's pace when necessary as it's underway.

The basic rhythm is set during the "dry run" held between the day's last safety briefing and the actual display.

Fell, who recalled rising at dawn each July 5 as a kid to hunt down any unspent fireworks on the streets of his neighborhood, largely took charge of the set-up Tuesday, as part of his preparation to take the reins from Erdman.

Looking over the mostly Chinese-made, paper-wrapped shells waiting to be loaded into tubes, he carefully selected more exotic ones for specific placement in the show, wondering aloud about one labeled "Kamuro with Purple Crackling Pistils" and others called "Yellow Sun with Silver Palm Core" or "Brocade Falls.

He said he hoped to get some sleep before Wednesday's show in Healdsburg, having been up until nearly dawn Monday morning after working a show at the Cache Creek Casino. It all comes with a hobby that requires him to juggle displays for the Giants and A's baseball teams, among others, with the regular job that pays the bills.

He grinned.

"It's an extreme hobby," he said.

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