CAMBRIA COUNTY, Pa. — We are just days away from Pittsburgh’s biggest Fourth of July celebration yet.
The actual shells for Saturday night fireworks are moving into place this week along the Ohio River.
Star Fire Corporation is putting on the big show. It’s a family business and they make a lot of their own fireworks.
Channel 11’s Jenna Harner went to Carrolltown in Cambria County to see all the work that goes into the show.
It’s set to be the biggest fireworks display in Pittsburgh’s history.
“The city of Pittsburgh has the best viewing ever, because anywhere in town you see it, because it’s right there in front of you. There’s really not a bad seat in the house,” vice president of Star Fire Corporation, Vince Terrizzi Jr., said.
Fireworks will electrify the sky for close to a half-hour as they’re set off from five barges floating in the three rivers and, special this year: from the rooftop of the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown.
It’s really going to enhance the whole city, and the point,” Terrizzi said.
It may be an understatement to say the team, from the technicians to the designers to the shell builders, is working around the clock.
“Thirty hours straight, just sitting there behind a computer and stuff. A lot, a lot of caffeine gets them through. To us, it’s our hometown, because we’re so close, and it just, it means the world to us. So there is a lot more pressure on it for us, because we care so much, you know. It’s not like, oh, you, sorry, it didn’t go so well, you know. So it’s just, we really, we’re putting a lot into this,” Terizzi said.
With fireworks going off from all of the barges and the rooftop, spectators will be surrounded by the glow of the shimmering lights and the thunderous booms like never before.
“It’s like, like you’re at an orchestra where they bring you to the end of your seat, and they slide you back, and then they bring you to the end of your seat, and at the end they want you standing, and you know, and clapping, and that’s what you want to do,” Terrizzi said.
There’s one aspect in particular that really sets this year’s show apart.
“The noise, I got to tell you, it’s definitely going to be loud, but you can move that kind of air, and you can feel it in your, in your body; then you know you’re doing something good,” Terrizzi said.
Fireworks seem to mean just a little bit more to us here in Pittsburgh and in the heart of the city on America’s 250th birthday, it’s set to be a historic spectacle for a celebration of our nation’s history.
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