In the weeks leading up to the holiday, Gary Souza and around 60 fellow pyrotechnicans are focused entirely on finalizing the 49th annual Macy’s show. But they are not strolling along the Brooklyn Bridge where it will take place, nor are they balancing aboard one of the four barges in the East River that will supply additional launch points.

The show must go on.” That’s what San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is saying one day after announcing that the city’s official Fourth of July fireworks display had gone up in smoke in an explosion at a Yolo County fireworks facility.