Fog or not, SF fireworks show must go on

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to head to San Francisco tomorrow to watch the 4th of July fireworks show.

Operators behind a display at Pier 50 are making plans to work around the fog if need be. 

Working on two barges docked here at Pier 50, pyro-technic crews spent the day packing shells wiring explosives and getting ready or tomorrow's 4th of July fireworks show. 

5,000 different effects will be fired from barges at Aquatic Park and Pier 39. 

"They all have to be placed in a specific location along the 300-foot barge. Then connect the modules," said Jeff Thomas, a pyro-technics specialist with Souza. "They all have to be placed in a specific location along the 300-foot barge. Then connect the modules."

The producers are staying quiet about that the show will look like tomorrow only that it will be different from 4th of July's past. 

"The order. The way they are fired. The timing will be different. So you will get different combinations up in the sky," Thomas says. 

One problem is the fog. Meteorologists from the National Weather Service are expecting the fog to roll in tomorrow evening. But fireworks producers say that while you may not be able to stop the fog, you can work around it. Part of the choreography is designed to deal with the fog. 

"We try to insert into the show a variety of altitudes so we are not always focusing on high stuff. We try to keep mid-range and low stuff so no matter what happens you are going to see something," said Thomas. 

Police are expecting hundreds of thousands of people along the waterfront tomorrow, especially near Pier 39 and Aquatic Park. They say in the wake of terrorist attacks in England, officers will be out watching closely. 

"Our units will be looking for suspicious people, suspicious packages and suspicious behavior," said SFPD Officer Robert Rueca. 

The best advice is to stake out a fireworks watching spot early in the day. 

Fog or not the show in San Francisco is scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m. and will last 25 minutes.