The sky above The Golden Triangle will go full technicolor this weekend as part of what organizers are touting as one of the most massive logistical undertakings Pittsburgh\u2019s Fourth of July fireworks have ever known.<\/p>\n
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of America, Pittsburgh and Carrolltown, Pa., based fireworks company Starfire Corporation have tapped five barges on the Three Rivers and the Wyndham Grand Hotel rooftop to play host to 6,000 individual cues. Each cue corresponds to different intensity levels and numbers of vibrant booms over a 25-minute show.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s 4,800 more than the city used to electrify the night in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re sitting on the shore of the Allegheny looking towards Point State Park, it\u2019s going to just spread the sky. And if you\u2019re over on the South Side or even on this side of the Mon side of the Point, you\u2019re going to see a whole scene,\u201d Starfire Corporation vice president Vince Terrizzi Jr. said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just two little points. It\u2019s going to be almost a panorama type of effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of those 6,000 cues currently sit on five 120-to-135-foot barges awaiting the show on the Ohio River\u2019s South Shore opposite Rivers Casino, the Pittsburgh skyline looming large in the background.<\/p>\n
Each cue is represented by a tangle of orange wire leading to a numbered hookup. Each represents its own logistical challenge and a cog in a show requiring tight, digitally coordinated timing. On the other end of the wires are bricklike explosives wrapped in shining silver foil and covered with black tarps. It\u2019s all held together in groups by wooden racks carefully spaced for safety purposes in case of an explosion.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The wires are] attached to multiple different devices, so some might shoot 10, some might shoot 100, some might shoot 20,\u201d said Terrizzi.<\/p>\n
From two river launch points 600 feet from the Ft. Duquesne and Ft. Pitt bridges, Starfire will top out at 4-inch explosives. A thousand feet from shore, where the Three Rivers meet, six-inch explosives will be fired from three barges.<\/p>\n
Each will fire off projectiles made in countries including Italy, China and Spain as well as by Starfire and Little Big Shots in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all part of the show designed by Armstrong\u2019s restaurant co-owner Ralph Piacquadio and David Hunter, both of whom have long designed for Starfire.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been doing fireworks forever,\u201d said Terrizzi of Piacquadio. \u201cHis loves are cooking and fireworks, cooking up amazing shows.\u201d<\/p>\n
With \u201cPyro Crew\u201d emblazoned on his sleeve, Terrizzi held up a large cylindrical explosive called a lampare made by Little Big Shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a heavy salute [type of firework] down on the bottom. And then up here is a liquid that they use, so when it gives you that heavy boom, it gives you a big orange fireball in the sky at the same time. So it\u2019s something unique. It\u2019s very old school,\u201d explained Terrizzi. \u201cIt\u2019s not something that people use in a lot of shows, but we\u2019re pulling out all the stops here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lampare is just one of \u201cdozens upon dozens\u201d effects with assorted names \u2014 including crossettes, crackles, two-and-three color-changers, chrysanthemums, peonies, salutes, seven-shots from Spain and more \u2014 that will be on display. Each carries its own unique chemical mechanism and properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor every inch in diameter is how big the shell breaks, and that\u2019s how many 100 feet it goes up,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, a three-inch technically should go about 300 feet, break about 300 feet in diameter. Six hundred feet [should be] 600 feet in diameter. It depends on what the effect is, how it\u2019s lifted, manufactured.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c[It will be] somewhere close to 300 miles an hour by the time it reaches the mouth of the pipe. And then once it gets up there, the time fuse is cut so that it hits a certain apex and then it detonates to get to where you want it to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since last Wednesday, 18 of Starfire\u2019s 28 full-time employees have been putting in 12-hour days to prepare for the main event \u2014 and rearranging things on the fly once they realized the barges they received were collectively 85 feet shorter than the space requested.<\/p>\n
They test each connection with a special plug-in device that lights up corresponding LED lights, one by one, to make sure they\u2019ll fire properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be watching these things like a hawk to make sure we\u2019re ready to go on the Fourth and there\u2019s no issues,\u201d said Terrizzi. \u201cBut technically, if we really had to, we could shoot this tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
They will control things digitally from strategically placed \u201cshooter shacks,\u201d each overseeing one of four separate show components.<\/p>\n
Timing is key.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe computer will find what we drop in that position [of the show. It\u2019s called a pre-fire, so they\u2019ll pre-lift that shell so many seconds before. If they wanted a cymbal crash at two minutes in a song and [the firework] takes three seconds to leave, the three seconds before that cymbal crash, it\u2019ll find that shell out here and fire it so that it\u2019s right on time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Terrizzi will be stationed atop the Wyndham.<\/p>\n
Somewhere a little below him in a room with a river view, his 80-year-old father, Vince Terrizzi Sr. \u2014 who has been in the fireworks business since the 1960s \u2014 and his mother, Jean, will have arguably the best seats in the house.<\/p>\n
Terrizzi Sr. is taking a break from his 30-year annual gig orchestrating Brentwood\u2019s fireworks due to stenosis of the back and heart that limits his mobility. Instead, he\u2019ll watch his son\u2019s handiwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love my mom and dad. I went and worked other jobs when [the company was] smaller and regional. And every job I worked always gave me off on the Fourth of July to be with my parents,\u201d said Terrizzi Jr. \u201cBecause they know that they mean the world to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second-generation fireworks professional can still remember looking toward the heavens at 3 years old in 1975 to watch his dad light up the night with a Liberty Bell shape. He\u2019ll be keeping his dad\u2019s old adage of \u201cIt\u2019s just another firework show, but it\u2019s just more\u201d in mind to keep under control.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to take people\u2019s breath away,\u201d said Terrizzi Jr. \u201cMy mom said she\u2019s going to smack me if I crack any of those windows. So we\u2019ll see what happens. We\u2019re definitely going to push it to the limit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sky above The Golden Triangle will go full technicolor this weekend as part of what organizers are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-234269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}