It's time to blow $%!# up!

It is now fast approaching the time of year that many Illinoisans make the journey to the closest neighboring state for one of the most popular entertainment devices of the summer-fireworks. But even as throngs of people scramble to get their hands on their favorite colored Roman Candles, the longest roll of firecrackers they can find, and those forever-classic sparklers, they forget one very important thing: fireworks are not toys and treating them as such can wield severe consequences.According to the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) Web site, "typically 60% of injuries from fireworks in the United States occur in the months surrounding the July 4th holiday" and results from a study conducted between June 18 and July 18, 2005 showed that firecrackers (26%), sparklers (17%), and rockets (17%) accounted for most of the injuries seen in emergency departments.

Texas native Lewis Hunnicuttt has been a professional pyrotechnician for almost 10 years, having worked in his home state under PepperHead Pyrotechnics, Inc. until this year. In 2008, Hunnnicutt worked for Walt Disney World as an Entertainment Technician, which involved working on the Wishes fireworks display at Disney's Magic Kingdom. This year he is shooting under an independent contractor.

He has designed, directed, and help set up pyrotechnic shows, and has worked every position from an assistant to the being the person in charge on site.

"Yes," he said, "I've almost been killed several times.it's very dangerous."

The Prospectus had a chance to sit down and chat with Hunnicutt so that he could elaborate.

Prospectus: Where did you grow up and how did you get interested in this sort of thing (pyrotechnics, fireworks)?

Hunnicutt: Well, I grew up in Royse City, Texas which is a small town about 30 miles east of Dallas. I'm a naturally creative person. I play in my own Metal band, Coilback where I do vocals and guitar (and the songwriting), I'm an artist, and I've even worked in some filmmaking. I've always loved the way you could "perform" with fireworks and loved putting on a show. My first experience "putting on a display" was at a local marina where they had bought a bunch of stuff from a stand and wanted to put on a display of their own (the owners). I helped and coordinated the fireworks. Everyone loved it. It was a great feeling knowing that all these people were watching your performance and enjoying the experience.

Prospectus: So what kind of license do you have to have to do the work that you do?

Hunnicutt: I'm licensed in Texas under two different licenses: Pyrotechnics Operator, which allows me to do the larger "4th of July" style aerial displays and Special Effects Operator, which allows me to do smaller up-close stuff like concerts, movie effects, and closer 4th of July type stuff (like things that are shot inside stadiums and such).

Prospectus: What did you have to do/go through to get your license(s)?

Hunnicutt: Well, it's different from state to state, but in Texas, there's an apprenticeship type system. You have to work as an assistant on five, 1.3G (it's a classification of pyro, it's the "bigger" aerial stuff) before you qualify to test. Then, you need to study all the laws and regulations regarding the use, handling, and storage of explosives. After that, it's a written test (a different test for each license). If you pass, you get your license. Fail, and you have to come back and try again. And everyone has to go through a federal background screening through the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms).

Prospectus: You said that you've almost been killed several times. Can you elaborate?

Hunnicutt: Well, there were quite a few instances. One that stands out the most was when we were firing a show for a local marina for the 4th of July. We didn't have as much "escape room" behind us as I'd usually like because we were shooting off the shore of the lake. I positioned our shoot table (where we fire the stuff electronically) near where the bank of the lake sloped off. About halfway into the show, a five-inch shell (that's diameter measurement), which has enough explosive force to blow the axle off your car, lobbed out of the tube and arced right at us. I grabbed my shooter and threw him to the ground on the slope. I ducked and the explosive force blew over us. When we measured the impact after the show (yes, we got up and finished the show), it had landed about 15 feet from where we were.

Prospectus: Can you tell us about some of the shows, concerts, and special occasions that you've worked on during your career?

Hunnicutt: Well, my "bread and butter" so to speak are 4th of July displays. I've done them for various cities in the Dallas area. The highlight was the last year they had a 4th of July at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. We got to have a full light show on the field, had the whole second deck with a bunch of effects and fired two full trailers (normally we use one) worth of fireworks. It was one of our biggest displays. Concert wise, the best production we've done was for the Heartbreakers tour which was an Indian music concert. They had LOTS of effects and production. Of course, it was nice to be a part of the Wishes fireworks display at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, but that show is pretty basic, setup wise, so once you done it once, it's just repetition after that. The most fun I had getting to go somewhere to shoot fireworks was two weeks in England for Guy Fawkes Night.

Prospectus: Have you had a favorite or least favorite performance that you've done?

Hunnicutt: My favorite job, just for the show content was the Cotton Bowl show I mentioned. Just because we had enough budget, distance (important when plotting the size of shells and effects you can use), and freedom to create a really cool show. I got to design the whole stadium interior effects and edit the entire soundtrack for the show. Now, location wise, I loved working for Disney just because the Disney fireworks shows are such a big deal and you get a lot of recognition by the general public for it, but it's not as gratifying because you are just loading and spotting for it, really. You don't get any say in the creative end of it. Worse job would have to be the few hand-lit shows we've done. We normally fire electrically, but a couple of times we fired some small hand-lit shows to help fit it into the budget for an event. We hand light the fireworks by using a "fusee" (aka road flare) attached to a long stick. The reason for this is because with professional fireworks, there is NO delay on the fuses. As soon as they are lit, they fire. The fuse we use on them burns at approx 45 feet per second. Being most of the fuses aren't much longer than 2 feet-you can do the math. The reason it's the "worst" was because it's extremely dangerous and not very appreciated (since it's such a small show). We had a "cake" (firework device that has a lot of shots in one box) in one show that blew in half and started firing at us. That was another time I almost got killed. Needless to say, we broke some land speed records that night.