Throughout the day of July 4th, Tony Gentile — Newton’s “Master of Fireworks” — and his crew of four set up the fireworks for Newton’s annual display over Albemarle Field — just as they have done for several decades. Tony works for American Thunder Fireworks, which conducts 120 shows a year, but his work here is a long-time Newton tradition with a long-time local crew.
“We’re setting up over 1,500 shells,” Tony says, “but a lot of them are doubles, so it’s almost 2,000 shells” for the 20-minute show.
[UPDATE] See Fig City News‘s photos of the fireworks show produced by this work.
During the afternoon setup, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller stopped by to thank Tony Gentile and his crew — and to greet his sister, Terry Sauro, president of the Nonantum Neighborhood Association, who had also stopped by.
Tony’s crew has worked together for decades. Long-time crew member David Anise said, “Tony taught us everything we know. We’d walk on water for him if we could.”
David explained how each shell is configured. Some are round, and some are cylindrical. Each comes prepackaged, made in China, mostly by hand, although some manufacturing steps are automated. The bottom of each shell has black powder for the lift charge that carries the shell up about 500 feet. That charge in turn lights an internal time-delay fuse that ignites a second charge that ignites and bursts the colorful stars outward.
Another long-time crew member, Tom Rebenklau, who has worked with Tony since 1982, explained how the crew connects each shell to a fuse made of black-powder-infused string inside a weather-resistant wrapping, then places the shell in one of 1,500 mortar tubes. Each fuse is then connected to an electric igniter, which is connected by a wire to the control panel. It’s a lot of wires to manage.
Tony used to handle all the programming of the show himself, but he’s happy now to delegate to crew members he has trained for years.
Instead of this modern electric firing of the shells, Tom prefers the old-school hand firing he knows so well. “With hand firing, each shell, instead of being chained together, would have a delay on the end of it. You pulled a safety cap off and exposed the black powder, lit the end of the thing with a torch or a flare, then turned your back on it and walked a few feet away. You don’t stand there and look at it. Yeah, I enjoyed that part of it.”
Tom does see an advantage in modern-day electric firing, however. “If you’re not the one pushing buttons, you’re just sitting back and watching it, so you can enjoy a little bit more. But it requires more set up and more clean up.”
Safety is the top priority throughout. After the show, the crew first conducts a comprehensive search for unexploded shells and then breaks down the equipment. A second search is conducted the next morning. The Newton Fire Department assigns two firefighters to stand by throughout the day work, with more assigned for the evening.
