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CNN Live At Daybreak

Head Pyrotechnician Discusses Atlanta Fireworks

Aired July 04, 2001 - 07:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The annual 10K Peachtree Road Race, right here in Atlanta, draws a huge field. In fact, it is the world's largest 10K race.

And watching it all from the upper deck of the Lenox Square Mall, the shopping mecca of Atlanta, is Brian Cabell.

Good morning, Brian, how's the view?

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, not a bad view at all. I'll tell you what we have behind us here, Carol, is 4,500 pounds of fireworks. That's 2 tons of fireworks -- 1,900 firing devices. Now, why are we here some 14 hours before these are set off? Well, to give you an idea of what they look like before they are set off and how this all works out.

With me right now is Dan Kemper, the lead pyrotechnician.

Give me a sense of what goes on here. We're looking at a bunch of tubes here. What's actually in these tubes, and how does it work?

DAN KEMPER, HEAD PYROTECHNICIAN: Each tube has its own individual shell, and then we ignite every shell with an electronic match.

CABELL: And you've got a soundtrack as well, that goes to this?

KEMPER: Yes, sir. Our designer, Josh Wydase (ph), has designed the shells to where they'll be breaking with the music. So it's timed to the music.

Who actually sets this up? Who orchestrates it all?

KEMPER: It all starts weeks before. Lenox Mall calls us and gives us the soundtrack that they want to use then Josh sits down and designs it. Then we have numerous people at the plant that pull each individual shell and match head them and box them. And then they get put on, in this case, it was my truck and I bring them down and then I start loading in.

CABELL: Can we take a look inside one of these things?

KEMPER: Oh yeah, if you come over here.

(CROSSTALK)

CABELL: We can't go too far with (INAUDIBLE).

KEMPER: Oh.

CABELL: Can we take a look at one of these?

KEMPER: Sure. This is - this is the electronic match I was telling you we use. It's - this is a Davey fire match and this is a four inch shell. This one happens to be a glittering silver to blue diadem and so each shell is - has their own different name and logo on it. This is a mansuna (ph) shell.

CABELL: This will be set off at a very specific time tonight after some of these and before others. I mean...

KEMPER: Yes, depending on when it is in the script, this could be the very first shell fired, it could be the last shell fired, just depending on how Josh designed it.

CABELL: OK, now also as I mentioned at this particular hour, as was mentioned just about five minutes ago, we've got the world's biggest 10K about to start. The Peachtree Road Race that's been going on for about 30 years - 55,000 people getting ready to run. We have wheelchair racers about to take off in about five minutes, then the runners after that. It'll take about an hour to get all the racers off. We have world class runners here, we have walkers here as well, but again, that's about to get underway. So we have racing in the morning, we have fireworks in the evening and we have the crew over here setting up for these devices right now so it's going to be a big day here in Atlanta.

Carol, back to you.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks, Brian. We'll look forward to seeing it.

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