Julianna Williams, a housekeeper from Lowell, Mass., and her daughter Julie, 11, who once lived in New York, left home at dawn to come see the fireworks, as they do every year.

“My favorite were the ones that move in all different directions, all colors,” Julie said.

The celebration returned to Manhattan’s West Side for the first time since the 9/11 attacks. The extravaganza was expanded this year with more than 44,000 shells.

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum — a retired World War II aircraft carrier — hosted the live NBC broadcast of the spectacle, featuring the cast of Broadway’s “West Side Story” and other stars. The New York Pops orchestra sat on the front open deck of the Intrepid playing a medley of patriotic music and new numbers composed for the occasion.

The festivities turned somber in North Carolina, where authorities said a truckload of fireworks exploded on Ocracoke Island off the coast, killing two workers and critically injuring three. And in central Florida, officials say one person was killed in a lightning strike at a Fourth of July gathering in Lakeland and at least 18 others were taken to hospitals.