Behind the scenes: Set up of Lake Decatur fireworks show

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - A lot goes into putting on a fireworks display, maybe more than you think.

Zach Davis of J&M Displays has been designing, setting up, and launching the show over Lake Decatur on the Fourth of July for the last five years.

"You spend all day setting up for 20 minutes of fireworks, but it's the best feeling ever," Davis said.

He and a small crew of two others unload boxes and boxes of fireworks onto a barge that will be sent into the middle of the lake. Then they sort the fireworks and decide which goes where.

"Tonight it's written all on a script, so it's all pre-planned tonight," he told WAND News. "We have notes. What gets plugged into where, that kind of thing. It makes it a lot easier. Less thinking involved day-of."

Then they start loading the fireworks into tubes, where they'll shoot out the night of the show. Davis will set them off remotely from a separate boat on the water.

"Every single shell is connected to an electric match. You plug it into the board and it'll send continuity and electricity through it and pop this little ball of magnesium and shoot a flame out," Davis explained. "Then, it'll light the lift charge that's all black powder and it'll light the timing fuse in the shell and send it up. When it reaches it's end, it busts, and that's when you see all the colors."

Davis has been prepping and shooting off fireworks shows professionally for 16 years.