It's 10:30 at night. Why are we hearing explosions near the bridge? (8 photos, updated)

Dearest SooToday readers:

Thank you for not phoning, emailing or messaging us tonight.

You're right: no one's blowing up the International Bridge or the Soo Locks tonight.

Those explosion-like noises you're hearing are fireworks.

Today is National Aboriginal Day, soon to be National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Each year on this date, Batchewana First Nation stages a bang-up fireworks display on Whitefish Island.

Donni Bobiwash takes fireworks very, very seriously.

Bobiwash is best known around the Sault as a volunteer cameraman who last year recorded the Shaw TV/SooToday livestream of Sault Ste. Marie City Council meetings.

Tonight, he's one-quarter of the four-man pyrotechnics crew staging the National Aboriginal Day fireworks on Whitefish Island.

When you're surrounded by $10,000 worth of explosives, you want to be on top of your game.

Bobiwash works on big pyro projects in Toronto and Montreal, too, and he stays sharp through the long days by watching his diet and health.

Caffeine and sugar eventually lead to a crash, so Bobiwash replaces them with fruit smoothies, tea and trips to the gym.

"If you want to be good at something, if you want to be great, you really have to prepare for it," he tells SooToday.

"It's timing. It's endurance. Getting your rest. Watching what you put into your body."

Bobiwash considered the Sault's National Aboriginal Day show a dry run for the July 1 Canada Day celebrations in Toronto, when he'll be 27 storeys up on the roof of the east tower of Toronto City Hall.

He worked on the turn-of-the-century celebrations on Toronto's Harbourfront, when 26 tons of explosives were fired off from the CN Tower and an array of ships.

He's done pyro and other special effects for concerts including the Tragically Hip, Metallica and Mötley Crüe, as well as for films and television (The Fall, Eyewitness, Glow).

In the Sault, Bobiwash was working for Dream Catcher Fireworks, based at Wahnapitae First Nation.

The company was involved in many National Aboriginal Day celebrations across northeastern Ontario, but owner Ted Roque chose to be on Whitefish Island.

'This will probably be the last time I'm going to come here," said Roque, who's also chief of Wahnapitae First Nation.

"These guys are going to be licensed to be able to do this on their own after this," he said. "I wanted to make sure they're comfortable using the equipment."

Roque's crew started manually hauling their gear across the locks to Whitefish Island around 9 a.m.

The fireworks were manufactured by three companies in China.

Roque says the quality of their pyrotechnics is improving every year.

On Whitefish Island, he showed us shells ranging from three inches to eight inches in diameter.

There's an interesting rule, he says, for fireworks shells.

The diameter corresponds to the height it will reach and the diameter of the explosion.

"If you've got an eight-inch shell, that shell's going to go up into the sky 800 feet and its going to burst 800 feet in diameter."

"The smaller shells are three inches. They're going to go up about 300 feet and they're going to burst 300 feet."

Roque says his company is able to handle shows five or six times the size of Sault Ste. Marie's.

The Sault's Canada 150 fireworks are planned for dusk on Saturday July 1 at Roberta Bondar Park.