Printed by the Review
FIREWORKS ARTIST
Posted By BY JENNIFER PELLEGRINI REVIEW STAFF WRITER
A quick 10-count confirms David Whysall’s very good at his job.
“Got ‘em all,” says Whysall, wiggling his fingers.
He has been in the fireworks business going back to his childhood.
“I’ve been in it since 1965,” he says. “It was a local industry back in England and I was good in chemistry, so the two came together.”
He moved to Canada in 1982 to work for what he now calls “the competition,” Hands Fireworks.
Whysall eventually started his own company, selling fireworks under the brand “Mystical Distributing.”
But he’s known in Niagara as the guy who lights up the skies over Niagara Falls.
“It’s the single biggest contract in Canada,” Whysall says of his arrangement with the Niagara Parks Commission to bring fireworks to Niagara Falls for the past nine years.
He declined to say how much it costs to put on a show like the ones seen Friday and Sunday nights throughout the summer, as well as on holiday Mondays and over Christmas. But, he said, typical shows range from between $5,000 and $50,000.
What he can say is that every regular show uses about 400 kilograms of fireworks. Displays like the one for Canada Day, New Year’s Eve and other special occasions use much more.
On a Friday afternoon in June, Whysall works down alongside the Niagara River, “the best office in the world,” where he has an up-close view of the American Falls and the Maid of the Mist going past him throughout the day. It takes about six hours on a good day to put together a six-minute show; longer when mist or foul weather hamper conditions.
Whysall and a small crew of workers spend their day packing the explosives into fibre reinforced expoy or high-density polyethelene cylinders which are packed in sand in individual crates along the shoreline.
They come in a variety of sizes: Four-inch, five-inch and six-inch, as well as a few three-inch “salutes,” the ones that come with the trademark “bang.”
“That’s purely powder being ignited,” Whysall said of the small ones. They used to come in the four-inch size, but after accidents happened with them in other parts of the country, the government outlawed the large-sized bangers.
Once they’re packed, the team begins putting an electical lighter into each tube which will be detonated when the show begins.
That’s the precision work: The lighters would act as lightning rods in inclement weather, which could cause a major disaster if a spark were to ignite the fireworks with people nearby.
That’s why people who work with fireworks must pass stringent testing, Whysall said. There’s a course offered by the Explosives Regulatory Division with the federal government, as well as an apprenticeship where newcomers to the industry are required to put in supervised hours as assistants before getting the designation to run shows.
Once the lighters are safely packed in with the explosives, however, the danger is passed and it’s a matter of waiting until the appointed time to run the current through the fireworks and give spectators a show.
“That’s the best part of the day,” he says.
Article ID# 1094482
© 2008 , Osprey Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Niagara Falls Review articles reprinted with permission by the authority of Joe Wallace, City Editor of the Niagara Falls Review.
Related posts:
- Classic rockers ringing in new year at Niagara Falls
- Majestic Monarchs at Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory
- Niagara Falls Festival set to shine lights across city
- Niagara Falls Festival lights the sky
- Band Finalists Revealed in Search for Canada’s Next Superstar
