Pyrotechnics and blowing stuff up

Yesterday, happy belated 4th of July by the way, was my first day working pyrotechnics.  This is something that was first brought up to me about a decade ago, and it just now came to fruition.  The process is not for everyone, as you must qualify for an ATF background check as the first step.

The call came at the last minute.  It woke me up.  I had to scramble to get ready.

There's things you have to be mindful of, such as wearing natural fabrics, as they don't burn as fast as some of the synthetics.  That means, heavy jeans, steel toed boots, a long shirt, and a hat, as well as things like sunscreen, drinks and whatever else you need.  Once you're there, there's no leaving.

Fireworks cannot be left unattended.  Thus, a cooler with sandwiches, snacks, drinks and whatnot can be essential.  There's essential tools of the trade, such as electrician's scissors, a hammer and more.

Most people think of it as a guy's job, but it was a girl who hired me and ran the whole event.  She's part of the Santore family, one of the oldest firework families in America.  She grew up around fireworks being manufactured and handling the explosives, even getting a degree in chemistry.

When I got to the Atlanta Braves stadium, which was recently built in North Port, FL, there was another girl on the crew, too.  She was a little firecracker herself, as her husband was on the crew and laughingly referred to her as a pissed off chihuahua.  These are girls that work just as hard - if not harder - than the men on the crew, showing that they are not afraid to get dirty and lift heavy things.

My job consisted of learning how to put in electronic matches.  This is something that you must be very careful with, as the tip is literally like a match head, and if you scrape it, you can strike it, which can cause an explosion.  After cutting the tip, slowly sliding in the electronic match, then the other end has to be connected to a board that controls when the fireworks will explode to the music.

Wiring up maybe half the fireworks, I was so pleased to see that I didn't mess things up too bad.  It's kinda like putting in wires for speakers.  Still, when it's your first time, you're nervous to mess up.

It's also kind of eye opening to see, after connecting all the wires, how the chain reactions occur.  When you're wiring, you don't really know what each firework does (unless you read the master list), so it's intriguing to see the gestalitist view where the whole is more than the sum of its parts.  The bombs wrapped in brown paper, like a grocery bag, is more than just a round explosive; it all comes together with colors, music, smoke, and parts of fireworks flying at you like shrapnel.

Once the fireworks start, another crew member confesses to me that he has PTSD from being caught in an explosion in a structure fire.  It makes me wonder if this is some kind of therapy, like facing his fears, but I can see him squirm uncomfortably.  Explosions can be scary for many people and pets.

Overall, things came together in an awesome array of explosive colors in the sky and a ton of smoke.  As it was the first 4th of July at the stadium, they had a slew of bounce houses, food trucks, music and more.  It was a long day of hefting and lifting, being in the sun so long that my body started shaking like a leaf when I finally got into air conditioning, but it was worth it to see the end result.