Whether from home or on the field of the high school, the community watched as the night sky lit up on July 4th.

By Charly SHELTON

July 4, America’s observed birthday, is celebrated around the country with little variation and typically includes barbecues, watermelon, star-spangled summer attire and fireworks. Many small town residents had to travel in order to take in a fireworks show, but not those in the Crescenta Valley. Last Wednesday, the Crescenta Valley Fireworks Association held its annual fireworks show and carnival at Crescenta Valley High School. The CVFA has been holding the hometown fireworks show almost 10 years. Before that, since 1989 – except for one year – the CV Chamber of Commerce had hosted the show.

Robert “Hutch” Hutchins has been the fireworks show runner since 2000. Hutch has been the pyrotechnic technician in charge. With over 30 years in the special effects film industry and 18 years running the CVFA show, he has seen the width and breadth of what this display has to offer. And each year, Hutch said, it changes a little bit, but always for the better.

“I’ve seen a lot of fireworks in my life and I have to admit that I’m a little jaded,” he said. “But this [year’s] show really excited me. There have always been incremental improvements in the technology of the shells but even more so in what we call cake devices, or fronts, or low-level devices. The shells tend to go way up in the air, anywhere from 300 to 400 feet in the air in our show, and the low-level devices go about 75 to 150 feet in the air. The advancements in the technology in these devices is tremendous, it’s just beautiful stuff.”

In addition to the technological improvements, the venue itself is really well set up for the fireworks display – for the most part. There have been years when the launch area – the middle field of Crescenta Valley High – has been challenging to work in, Hutch said. These included the demolition of old high school buildings and the construction of new ones and having to set up fireworks racks between piles of construction rubble to bungalows set up on the field as temporary classrooms, which cut the firing space by half. These challenges were always met by Hutch and his crew. But the one thing that remains constant, despite the back-end difficulties, is the guest experience thanks to the layout of the whole event.

“Having a shooting area above the audience really lends itself to fireworks. I think it’s just a great layout, particularly for those low-level devices. They look really good from that angle. That’s the advantage for the people who pay to get in and sit on that field; it’s a better view of those devices,” Hutch said. “The people who are up on Foothill Boulevard or elsewhere don’t get that advantage.”

Hutch also commended the CV Fireworks Association and all the other parties involved for being open to collaboration ensuring a great show.

“As I mentioned before, there’s been real improvement in the quality of fireworks. With the shells, the colors are much more brilliant now than they used to be and one of the [best] things about the show [is] that the Fireworks Association purchases a lot of really good shells,” Hutch said. “They’re not just the cheap color shells; there are a lot of really fancy specialty shells. And the choreography – John Noonan has been doing the choreography and he really excels at it. How he matches shells to the music that will fill the sky with a particular look of shells is really exciting for me to watch the show.

“It’s a privilege for me to work with the Fireworks Association. They’re great people, they do a lot of hard work to make this happen and I’m really happy to be part of it.”

  Charly Shelton