High-tech eye on a tradition

Under the rockets' red glare, authorities to watch July 4 gala via sophisticated gear

As fireworks detonate Friday, dozens of officials will be observing the crowd and the Esplanade staging area from the Unified Command Center in the Back Bay, the brainchild of the celebration's executive producer, David Mugar. (Globe Staff/ File 2006 Photo / John Bohn)

As shells explode in showers of red, blue, and gold over the Charles River and Keith Lockhart leads the Boston Pops in the "1812 Overture," Lieutenant Bruce H. Lint of the Massachusetts State Police will be holed up in a dimly lit Back Bay basement, eyes glued to a video screen.

He and 50 officials from federal, state, and local agencies will watch live feeds from video cameras installed along the Esplanade and on a State Police helicopter circling above the expected 500,000 revelers. If a bomb detonates, they can alert the FBI. If a person faints, they can send an ambulance. And if a blaze ignites, they can send firefighters.

The so-called Unified Command Center, a hushed space draped with black curtains and bristling with radio equipment, is part of a massive and methodical orchestration of security measures that has mushroomed as the event has evolved from a local celebration into a $3 million, nationally televised extravaganza.

From 1974 until 2001, public safety agencies guarding the famed July Fourth celebration worked from separate buses parked along Beacon Street.

Interagency communication in those days meant walking outside and knocking on the window of another agency's bus. Now, it means turning to the Coast Guard officer, Cambridge firefighter, or Boston police commander seated at a neighboring computer.

The center, which features video monitors showing a constantly updated log of emergencies and a Doppler radar of the weather, has helped make the celebration a model of security for massive public events. Over the years, officials from Harvard, London, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, New York, and Washington, D.C., have visited Boston to learn what makes the center work.

"The days of running up and down Beacon Street, banging on bus windows, are long behind us," said David G. Mugar, executive producer of the celebration, who watched at the center yesterday as workers connected computer wire for an alphabet soup of 24 agencies.

When the celebration began in 1974, officers relied more on sawhorses than chopper-mounted video cameras to keep the crowds safe.

"It was three of us on the roof of a building with three portable radios, and that's how it was coordinated," said Richard Serino, chief of Boston Emergency Medical Services, who oversees 100 emergency medical technicians at the celebration, "so it has come a long way."

Things changed dramatically in early 2001 when Mugar, a businessman and philanthropist who for years paid for the celebration, hit upon the idea of placing the authorities in one room. He outfitted the space with black tablecloths, black drapes, headsets, and gooseneck lamps to make it resemble a theater and encourage officials to work quietly.

"It's extremely effective," Lint said. "What it does is allow people to concentrate on their specialty and not have to do other things."

These days, as Lint and others work behind the scenes, hundreds of officers patrol the Esplanade on foot, bicycle, all-terrain vehicle, and horseback. Dozens patrol the river by boat, guarding the five barges loaded with 19,000 pounds of fireworks.

Last week, officials surrounded the barges with a buoy line and erected orange barricades in the lagoons near the Hatch Shell.

On the Fourth, officers will park snowplows at either end of Storrow Drive and lay spike strips between them to thwart a car bomb.

Those working on the celebration say the show of security gives them a sense of well-being.

"Working in Boston's Fourth is really luxurious for us," said Eric Tucker, the fireworks director at PyroSpectaculars, the California firm that will launch more than 10,000 shells over the Charles. "Everybody here knows exactly what they're doing, so all we have to worry about is fireworks."

This year's show will feature fireworks from Italy, Portugal, and Japan that will burst into smiley faces, stars, hearts, and "a giant, gold drape over the Charles," said Tucker. In addition to the Pops, the country act Rascal Flatts is scheduled to perform "Life is a Highway," and another tune, "Every Day."

"It's a little bit more involved than your average rock show because of the size," said Paul McGalliard, who oversees a sound system of two dozen speakers on either side of the Charles. The system has worked without fail, he said, except for one year when a reveler knocked loose a cable.

"We lost about four bars of 'Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,' " he said, "and the orchestra's never done it since."