[hissing]

[echoing electronic marimba
composition]

♪

(man)
Light a fuse and get away.

One of the very first
things I did--

how to spell or read probably.

♪

I don't know many people
who don't like fireworks.

♪

People who shoot
fireworks, now,

kind of a special
breed of us.

A'right! I want some
creamer in my coffee.

[explosion]

[voice-over]
John Brock was right
in 1542 or whenever it was.

He said, "He who hath once
smelt the smoke

is ne'er again free,"

and that's kind of one
of our own little pyro mottos

is, you know,
you smell the smoke

and it kinda gets
in your blood,

and there's just a certain
group of people that--

we really like
that kinda stuff.

That's what we do.

We entertain people
with fire and explosives.

♪

[guitar leads
easy arrangement]

The first thing I need to do
is go visit the site.

♪

We are regulated
by the parameters

of how much space
we have to work in.

There's quite
a few regulations

on how much room we need.

You find you a groundhog
there, Sparky?

So I wanna look and see
where the roads are,

where the midway's gonna be,
where the carnival trailers

are gonna be,
where the people are gonna be.

All--all of those factors
come into play.

Well, you just make sure
that we are within our codes

and far enough away
from the barn.

These barns were probably
built 70 years ago.

A lot of yellow heart
pine timber,

and we sure don't wanna
burn one of those down.

♪

We were down
in that hollow, you know,

takin' our initial
measurements

from the shoot site itself.

Now we're back up
from the vantage point

of where the spectators
are gonna be.

This is where
all the rides are gonna be.

All the food vendors
are back over in here.

They usually have
all the kiddie-land stuff

back over along this wall.

Ferris wheel usually
goes over here,

but you can kinda
see here, you know,

as we're lookin' at it,

and visualize the fireworks
goin' up right above that tree.

I have to provide a listing

of all the materials
that we'll shoot--

three- and four-inch shells,
and it's an accurate count

of what we're gonna bring in
every day on the fair.

And then we submit all of this
to the fire marshal's office,

who presents it
to the county commissioners,

who then turn it back
to the fire marshal,

and he calls me and says,
"I've got your permit ready."

That process in Davidson
County takes about 60 days.

[voice-over]
We just don't put together
something in a week.

I start workin' on
4th of July stuff in December.

[electronic score]

Display fireworks
are legal all 50 states,

but they have to be put on
by a licensed company.

I hold licenses
in four different states.

All right, you know,
I think everybody

has heard this phrase
at one time or another,

and that's,
"let's get ready to rumb-llle!"

fwoosh

fwoosh

I know just enough to keep me
in trouble--hah, hah...hah!

[rooster crowing distantly]

Most of what we do
is a full turnkey job

where we provide all materials
and all the equipment

and the technicians
and everything.

Once we arrive on the site
with the materials,

then that site becomes ours.

We become a hot zone--
only authorized personnel.

Back then, what they call
a ship show or a drop show

was much more common.

We, as a customer
or the local fire department,

would buy the fireworks show
for the town.

The company would ship it
to the fire station,

and they would put on
the actual display.

With the advent
of some of the newer rigs

and the licensing program,

nobody really does
many ship shows anymore.

[funky electronic tune]

Depending on the venue
that we're at

and how much space we have,

there's a lot of different
ways you can set up.

You can see this zigzag;
we call it a herringbone.

Each rack is--has one end
it's supported against.

The strapping system makes it
really nice and rigid.

But, again, you wanna make sure
that that's pretty solid

and, uh,
makes it pretty stable.

And it's fairly quick,
and in the event

that something might happen

where we have
to skedaddle pretty quick,

then we have
a pretty clear, straight run

out and, uh,
to get away.

And hopefully,
we don't have to, uh,

utilize that.

Typically,
the end of the show,

the big grand finale--
have--this is 122 shots,

and we get this thing
pretty tight.

You can pretty much
drive a tank over this thing,

and it's not gonna
go anywhere.

The whole idea
is to make it pretty immobile.

[ambient arrangement]

The history of fireworks
goes back thousands of years,

so it's evolved.

It's been a long process,
and it is a--an art form.

It's got the history and--
and science.

The actual method
of making a fireworks shell

is the same as it's been

for hundreds
and hundreds of years.

You've got the lift powder

that fires it
out of the mortar

and lights
the time-delay fuse.

The inner part of the shell

is where you have
a burst charge

that actually does
break the shell apart.

It lights the petals
or the stars

that create the petals
of the flower.

You can't imagine
how many people come up,

"Ohhh!" you know,
"Can I get a couple of those?"

"No! You cannot!"

"Go away."

This fuse,
this is the quick match.

It burns
about 300 feet a second.

I mean,
it's supposed to go down

and across
and down and across,

but it can go down
and across and jump over

and start a fire here and jump
and start a fire there;

then you got all these--

This should go up
in about...ten seconds,

but it could go up
in about three.

We'll tie
all of these together,

and if I do my job well

and don't have to duck in here
and relight it,

[panting]
we'll only light one time...

hopefully.

For you folks who like that 20-
or 30-minute firework show,

people don't realize,
you know,

the crew shows up
early in the day.

They work 10,
sometimes 12 hours

to set up a fireworks show
that lasts 12 or 15 minutes.

It's--it's quite a--

a labor of love.

Thank you,
sir.

[voice-over]
Our biggest fear

is the summer thunderstorm
that rolls in

and just
gully washes everything.

High wind
is really our worst fear

'cause a little bit o' wind
here at ground level,

you don't know what
it's gonna be up at altitude.

You know, at 300 feet,
it can be whippin' along

at 40, 50 miles an hour,
and you send a shell up there,

and then, it just--
chooo!

Always at a fair or festival,
there's flags everywhere.

A full-size American flag,
if it's standin' straight out,

that's at least
ten miles an hour.

At ten miles an hour,
I'm gonna start thinkin',

Do we readjust
our mortar racks?

Do we make any changes,
or do we just not shoot?

Well, one of the things
we do like to do,

especially when
we're at a fair,

starting around 5 o'clock--

[off-screen]
Fire in the hole!

Just as kind of a tickler...

[deep electronic droning]

we'll send a big salute up,

you know, and a salute is one
that just kinda-- boom-yah--

and you can hear 'em
all over town.

BLAM!

We'll start sendin' those up
'bout once every hour.

BLAM!

Let the town know,
"Hey! We're open.

"Come ride the rides;
come spend some money.

Come watch the fireworks."

BLAM!

[distant exclamations
and cheering]

[quick electronic score]

Our show is generally

the last thing
of the evening,

the culmination
of the day's events.

My job is to be ready.

When it's time to shoot,
we're on time.

We're right on cue.

There's a little thatch
on that

we might catch on fire,
so, uh,

your fire extinguisher's
right there.

[voice-over]
You're ready to light
that first barrage.

Yeah, I get
the little butterflies.

♪

Let it rip!

Fire in the hole!

♪

[cymbal roll]

[popping]

The principia,
or the opening barrage, is--

well, it gets
everybody's attention.

[droning orchestration]

♪

And then, our job
is just to keep goin'.

The pace will ebb and flow
a little bit

with the different effects
we want.

We just don't want
a whole lotta dark sky.

[popping and explosions]

The sky is our palette,
and fire is our paint.

We wanna try to give

as many different effects
as we can

so people will find something,
and they say, well,

"Wow, that was
really cool.

I really like that one."

[continued popping
and explosions]

You know, they're watching
the fireworks explode up here.

They don't always see
what's happenin' on the ground

where we're actually firin'
those things.

There's a lot of fire
comin' out of those mortars

and stuff flyin' everywhere.

There is an element of danger.

Your adrenaline gets pumpin'.

When I come up and start
slappin' somebody on the back,

"Oh, it's not 'cause
you're doin' a good job.

Your back's on fire."
Heh, heh!

Yeah, it's organized chaos.

[rapid popping]

[plodding piano score]

♪

♪

Yeah, you build up
the crescendo

to the grand finale,

and that's the big splash
at the very end.

♪

I've just really loved
fireworks all my life.

[orchestration builds]

It is one
of the most spectacular

of the entertainment media.

It involves all your senses.

You can see it,
and you can smell it,

and you can hear it,
and you can feel it...

so it really encompasses
your whole body.

♪

[loud, rapid popping]

♪

Once that finale goes off

and then you hear
50,000 people go "WAAH!"

you know, that's--
that's really what--

what makes it happen for us.

Even though
they never see me, uh,

they see my work.

♪

[hissing]

♪