Station Casinos get ready for fireworks

Las Vegas' biggest Fourth of July fireworks show takes four days and 680 man hours of work, not to mention almost a year of planning. Rockets were shipped in from across the globe, from Australia to Spain.

It'll all be over in nine minutes.

Workers from the New York-based Fireworks by Grucci were hard at work Tuesday building four identical fireworks shows presented by Station Casinos across the valley.

"You can be anywhere in the valley and see two or three shows," producer Larry Goetz said.

Planning for the shows started almost immediately after last year's Fourth of July fireworks, Station Casinos spokeswoman Lori Nelson said. Once a theme and score was chosen - this year's extravaganza is called "We Love Locals," set to a mix of nine songs, such as the Beatles' "All You Need is Love" and Sugarland's "Love" - things started to move forward.

Grucci fine-tuned the score and started choreographing the show by using a computer simulation program about eight months ago, Goetz said.

Workers began trucking in equipment to the top of one of Texas Station's parking ramps Monday. On Tuesday morning, pyrotechnicians Rob Inga and Chris Wasco wired their fireworks in the blazing sun. The Texas Station show will be shared with neighboring Fiesta Rancho.

"A lot of the prep is just to make sure things fire when you want them to fire," Wasco said. That's crucial when each explosion is timed with the score.

Today's show will be Grucci's fifth year producing and running fireworks for the casinos. Nelson said Station has pushed the fireworks company to get bigger and better.

"It's always nice to outdo yourself each year," Wasco said.

The shows will start at 9 p.m. or soon after. Tune into KKLZ-FM, 96.3; The Oasis-FM, 105.7; The Coyote-FM, 102.7; BOB-FM, 107.9; or KDWN-AM, 720; for the musical score.

The three other shows will be at Aliante Station in North Las Vegas, Green Valley Ranch in Henderson and Red Rock Casino in unincorporated Clark County.

Contact reporter Kyle Potter at kpotter@review journal.com or 702-383-0391.