Behind the scenes at Red, White and Boom

Fireworks are about as Fourth of July as being Fourth of July can get. Here at 47 ABC we wondered what went into those firework displays that many people enjoy on Independence Day, so we went behind the scenes at Red, White and Boom to find out. 

Pyrotechnician Martin Billingsley showed us the ropes. 

"The process is to first figure out where we are as far as relative to where the crowd is, any spectators, buildings, and whatnot. We need to safe distances away from those and we figure out what the wind is going to be around the time of the show," Billingsley said. 

This years Red White and Boom firework display will all be hand-lit explained Billingsley. 

"We'll light them one at a time throughout the night from the main area and then we get close to the end there's only one place to light on the finale and that'll go all by itself," Billingsley said. 

The process of getting the fireworks ready takes about six hours in whole. First tubes or guns are formed together into racks. 

"We put four racks together to make a box for the main show and for the finale we just tie all the racks together in one big long line," Billingsley said. 

After that the crew cleans each tube of any debris before loading in the fireworks.