When Victor Anber was a kid, there were ways for youth to get their hands on fireworks.
You could send your big brother to the store to buy them for you or, if you were lucky, your parents would buy them and let you light a few off in the backyard all by yourself.
“Back then fireworks were easier to get ahold of,” he says, “things were different.”
Anber was about 10 years old the first time he got ahold of some fireworks and by the time he was in his 20s he was lighting them professionally, as a pyrotechnician and the owner of the distribution company K&H Fireworks out of Windsor, Ont.
He opened his business in 1982. At that time, fireworks were just one of many products he sold. It was seven years later that he decided to get his certification to orchestrate professional firework shows—of which he now does about 120 a year—and exclusively sell fireworks, distributing them across the country.
For the past five years, one of his annual shows has been in Jasper. Anber travels across the country each winter to light up the sky above Centennial Park during the Jasper in January festival.
That was the case again this year. On Jan. 30, he and his colleagues put on a 15-minute and 49 second show that wowed hundreds of spectators who gathered in the centre of town to ooh and aah at the breathtaking blasts of colour.
Anber's show is just one of two that happen in the park each year. (The other is on Canada Day.)
For anyone who's watched a fireworks display, it might be surprising to find out just how much organization and planning is actually required to pull off a 15-minute show.
It's not as easy as buying a bunch of random fireworks, lighting a wick and hoping for the best.
First, you have to complete the National Fireworks Certification Program and receive your Fireworks Operator Certificate in order to legally acquire, store and use fireworks.
“When I got certified you walked into a course, you spent six hours there and that was it, you were off and gone, 50 bucks, and then you could play with 12 inch shells, go up 1,200 feet and break 1,100 feet across,” says Anber, who now teaches the certification course.
“Today it's changed greatly. You have the training course that you have to take, it's three times the amount of money and there is a duration of so many shows that you have to do.
“You have to be trained in every area; if you have a rooftop, you have to be trained in that area. If you want to do a barge that's a different area. It's a lot more serious and in great detail then it was when I first got my license, which isn't a bad thing really.
“It's all for safety.”
Beyond the proper training, pyrotechnicians also need to know how each of the products reacts, in order to plan a safe and spectacular show. So, with every new firework that comes into the K&H warehouse, Anber gathers all of his staff for a demonstration, testing the product on his 52 acre farm to see what it will do.
In some cases, that can mean upwards of 70 people are there to watch and learn.
“I have nine full time people that work for me and over 60 part time people who have other full time jobs, but love to fire shows, so they'll book their vacations around my busy time so they can fire two or three shows in a year.
“Anytime a new product comes in, all of those people and my full time people are brought down to my warehouse to see how the product reacts and they get familiar with it. You don't want to get familiar with it on a field. All the shows that we do, the choreographing is done at my warehouse, so I know the venue and I know what size we can use.”
When planning for a show, knowing the size and shape of the venue is especially important. It determines the size of fireworks that can be lit, where the spectators can safely stand and what areas need to be closed off to allow for the debris to fall.
“Each venue is different so you have to design accordingly to that size of place or where the crowds going to be or what your obstructions are,” says Anber.
For the show at Centennial Park, Elm Avenue is always closed, acting as the fallout area, where debris can safely fall, and the Jasper Fire Department is on hand to keep an eye on the school and other surrounding buildings to ensure there are no issues.
Anber said each show is different. It depends on the venue—because that determines what size of fireworks can be used—and it depends on the budget, but it also depends on the crowd.
Every show is scripted with the sequence of fireworks predetermined, but there's room for change in how the show is paced.
“The crowd is your thermometer. If you're not getting the response that you want to, you're going to pick up the pace a little bit, so your show will be a little shorter; and if you are getting a good response, you know when to slow it down a little bit. So, you work from the crowd.”
Anber said it's funny, you can tell when the crowd is engaged because they all react at the same time.
“You get oohs and aahs from the crowd. The oohs are actually building up tension in your body—what does that is loud noises, or huge effects coming at you; that builds up tension in your body and you need to relieve that tension. That's when the aahs come in and the aahs are usually produced by something very pretty or gentle or colourful.
“If it was one person that goes aah, I wouldn't hear it out there because it's too loud, but the thing is the whole crowd does it pretty much at the same time, so you can hear it. They react at the same time.”
It's those oohs and aahs and the screams that come at the end of a show that make the job so satisfying.
“That's when you know you've done a great job. You've got a crowd screaming at the end and it's not from pain, so it's all good.
“There's not a lot of people that have my job and if I didn't love what I do, I wouldn't do it,” says Anber.
“Fireworks are an amazing thing; they're mystical and exciting.”
Nicole Veerman
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