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By Jenn Shreve

July 3, 1999 | SAN LEANDRO, Calif. -- Jeff Thomas has not celebrated the Fourth of July since 1974. As a pyrotechnician, it's Thomas' job to design and set off the dazzling fireworks shows that mark the end of a day packed with barbecued hot dogs, softball games and rousing renditions of the national anthem. Thomas, 46, has been working full time as a show producer and sales representative for Pyro Spectaculars since 1990. From 1971 to 1990, he moonlighted as a licensed pyrotechnician while working for AT&T. Thomas' clients are spread from California's central coast to the Oregon border. He also works with Pyro Spectaculars on Hong Kong's annual Chinese New Year celebration and special events like the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Salon spoke with Thomas at his home in San Leandro about designing a fireworks show, the dangers of handling explosives and working on Dec. 31, 1999.

How did you get started in the fireworks business?

When I was a kid, I helped a neighbor of mine who now owns Pyro Spectaculars unload trucks and do miscellaneous jobs not directly related to lighting fireworks.  It was exciting to know that I was behind the scenes entertaining people. After doing it for a while, I also understood and appreciated the dangers involved. In 1974, when I was 21, I was licensed as a pyrotechnician. 

How do you get licensed?

It takes no schooling. I learned through on-the-job training.  That's how everyone gets into this. You have to do eight shows in a two-year span, and you have to get five letters of recommendation from licensed operators.  An electrical background helps a lot.  Knowing fire safety is also helpful. You take a written test, pass a background check and get your license.

When you were a kid, did you like to blow things up?

I played with firecrackers just like any boy did.  Nothing unusual.  It wasn't some sort of fascination with me.  It was just a coincidence that I got in the profession.

What goes into designing a fireworks show? 

Every pyrotechnic operator has his or her own way of putting on a show and lighting it into the air.  Most of the shows that are shot on the Fourth of July are not choreographed.  You just shoot some small fireworks, some larger ones, some small ones, some larger ones -- slower to faster with a huge finale.  There is some design in mind, but it's minimal compared to the shows that are the next step up, which are electronically fired and typically choreographed to a music soundtrack and sometimes broadcast on a radio station or just over a PA system.  We listen to the music, and we have a program that helps us plot out when we want certain things to happen.  They say, "My heart grows big"; we can do a heart shower -- when the shell explodes, it explodes into a heart.

You can do patterns and designs?

The patterns are limited.  Every year, it seems like there's a new pattern.  The newest one we have is a happy face.  We have shells that look like strawberries -- very nice pattern. We also have a U, an S and an A.  We're trying to send a 2, an 0, an 0 and an 0 up.  It's tough. Most of our shows are three dimensional: Wherever you're standing you can see the shell.  The pattern shells are one dimensional.  Depending on the way they orient, the main viewing audience is going to see it, but somebody else may not see it.

How do you practice?

Practice is difficult.  At most entertainment fields -- I do some indoor displays as well -- you watch the sound guy do his sound check, and they rehearse and rehearse and rehearse.  Our rehearsals are basically the last show we did. 

You don't go out into the desert and blow things up?

There are some remote desert areas that we use.  Every year we get new products in from suppliers.  We'll take a bundle of those out and launch them up to check how the shells are going to function.  We sometimes find a shell that is malfunctioning consistently. 

How much does one shell cost?

An average shell ranges anywhere from $10 to $15 on the low end to $200 to $300 for larger shells. 

How many shells would you use for a typical Fourth of July show?

A small show would probably have 200 to 300 shells.  Some of the larger shows have 2,000 to 3,000 shells. 

How do you light them? 

There are several ways to light them.  The majority of shows on the Fourth of July are lit with a highway flare.  The shell has a fuse that comes out of the mortar.  You light the fuse, it goes in and launches the shell up in the air. But the other way of igniting the shell is electronically firing it.  They have what we call an electric match which we take and put into the fuse. We run it to a terminal, and we either push a button manually or a computer gives a signal to fire it.  That's the latest step in the computer technology.

How much of your work can you do on the computer?  Can you see how something is going to look beforehand?

We're not quite there yet.  We do have some graphic design, and we have the capability of mixing and matching shells, sizes, durations and assembling them in a show script.  We do a lot of the scripting on a computer, and some of our major productions are fired with the computer. 

Next page | Sussing out the danger element