Have a blast today at the fireworks

A 400-position firing panel will make the skies sparkle over Carson City tonight.

"I was up at 3 a.m. designing the cue sheet for the show," said Jack Davis, owner of Pyro-Spectaculars of Sacramento, who is staging the show behind the Carson HIgh School football field.

Monday afternoon Davis and his crew were loading 3-to-8-inch aerial shells into metal cylinders anchored in sand inside three red, white, and blue troughs. The troughs, fitted with black electrical coils, will be connected to a 100-foot-long cable. That cable will attach to a control board that will let each group of shells be fired by pushing a button.

Davis, who will oversee the show, plans to start small, then work bigger and end with a grand finale. The finale racks, as they are called, hold 25 shells each.

"It takes about 7 seconds to light off one box, and we have 12 boxes," said Davis. The show will last about 25 minutes.

The fireworks were scheduled to be shot off from the northeastern edge of the playing fields, but piles of grass clippings and other dry vegetation presented a fire hazard. Fallout from the fireworks would burn deep inside the piles, so the school district gave permission to use the grass.

"If something goes up and doesn't go off, we have to pick it up the next morning," said Davis. "Here, it'll be easy to spot."

Richard Chrzanowski, battalion chief of the Carson City Fire Department was on hand Monday making sure everything was okay with the site.

"When you give your blessing to something, you want it to go well," he said.

The fireworks are the climax to Carson City's four-day celebration of Independence Day 2000.

Today's events include the wrap-up of the Transportation Fair at the Nevada State Railroad Museum and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program carnival at Mills Park.

This year's fireworks are being hosted by the Ormsby House Hotel & Casino. In past years the Ormsby House held its own fireworks show, but this year owners Al Fiegehen and Don Lehr decided to throw their backing behind the RSVP show.

Other fireworks shows tonight include one in Reno at Rancho San Rafael park, one at the Sparks Nugget and two at Lake Tahoe, one in South Lake and the other in North Lake Tahoe.

If you go

What: Fourth of July fireworks

Where: Visible from Mills Park and surrounding areas

When: Shortly after 9 p.m.