If you haven’t you’ll have the opportunity to next weekend.
Wade, president of Fireworks FX, which is based in Grand Pré, said they have a fully automated display ready for next weekend’s Pictou Lobster Carnival. Most recently they worked with the City of Charlottetown for their Canada Day fireworks display.
“It’s going to be a very good show,” said Wade in an interview with The News. “It will be completely scripted on a computer with design software. It will be loaded into the firing computer and will be completely automated.”
He said they also sold Westville their Canada Day fireworks, but were not involved in the planning of the show. They will be planning and hosting the show for the Stellarton Homecoming on July 27.
At the Wellness Centre on Sunday for the Maritime Fire Chief Association’s conference and tradeshow, Wade said he likes to be visible at the show because most certified community firing teams for professional fireworks are the fire departments, similar to Westville. Anyone over the age of 18 can buy and handle consumer fireworks, which his company sells, but for anyone looking to work with professional fireworks needs to take the federal explosive regulatory course.
He said they’re both the same product, it’s just the power and size that differs.
“The big version of that is professional fireworks, which do the same thing as the consumer products, but are much more powerful,” he said. “They go much higher and have bigger bursts, but do the same thing.”
The third type they sell and work with are pyrotechnics, which have been around for 40 years or so. They’re what are used at concerts, both indoors and outdoors, sporting events and other special events.
“They’re made to very specific tolerances,” he said. “They will produce their effect exactly the same way over and over again. If it’s made to go 20 feet high and last for 20 seconds it will do that over and over again. With a consumer or professional firework, it may go to the left, to the right or not as high as it’s supposed to. That’s why we require a safety distance for fireworks display, to account for the unreliability of the fireworks themselves.”
He included that they import all the fireworks they sell from China, Spain, Portugal and Italy because they’re made significantly cheaper to make there as opposed to Canada. It’s been a number of years since there was a major fireworks manufacturer in the country, which was based out of Ontario.
“Nobody can compete with China, whether it’s making cars or making fireworks – it’s just so cheap.”
It’s the ability to sell cheaper fireworks and the improvement of consumer fireworks that has improved the industry. Fireworks FX has become increasingly busy because of the fascination and home use for personal shows.
“As fireworks improve they become more popular,” he said. “You go to a beach party and a buddy brings a $50 box of fireworks and you love it, so you want to do that. This time everybody throws $20 into the hat and you get $100 box. It kind of keeps growing because as people attend functions everybody loves it. It’s such great entertainment.”
On Twitter: @NGNewsChris
