Sand berms going up along waterfront for 4th of July Fireworks Show in Santa Barbara

SANTA BARBARIA, Calif. - It's almost showtime.
But first, tractors have to dig up loads of sand to create sand berms.

"This is kinda like the first step of the fireworks preparations so you see behind me we have a loader from the parks department that is building a sand berm," said spokesman Chris Bell of the City of Santa Barbara Waterfront.

West Beach is where crews will launch all the fireworks at the Fourth of July Show.

"The technicians have all these tubes that they fire the fireworks from … these boxes and they have a lot of them for the show and so that is kind of the secure bunker for the fireworks to be shut off," said Bell.

"Shoots off from the beach right over the water so you can get 360° view of it … The Wharf gets packed people watching it," said senior maintenance worker David Running of the City of Santa Barbara Waterfront Department.

Organizers of the show said they’re projecting a packed crowd at Stearn's Warf during the fireworks show.

"The harbor … everybody that has a boat has other friends show up and they all have parties," said Running.

As crews build the sand berms, the Waterfront Department is asking people to stay outside the safety perimeter.

"What happens is that Sand berm is a really attractive thing for kids and people to go play on ... and what they do is they kind of knock it down as they’re doing it," said Bell.

This means crews would have to come back and rebuild the mountains of sand.

"So we want to keep people out of this area and off the sand until that happens," said Bell.

The Waterfront Fireworks Show is set for July 4th at 9:00 p.m. near West Beach.