A pyros guide to the 4th

Culture | June 24th, 2015

Meet 5 local firework experts ...

Photo by Raul Gomez

Dave Reuter of Memory Fireworks

Favorite fireworks as a child:
Sparklers and ground-bloom flowers

Favorite fireworks as an adult:
M5-artillery shells
Exploding Rainbow -- multi shot
Sedona -- multi shot
Prairie Rose -- multi shot

What got you into fireworks?
Actually, my wife had worked here in the summer for a few years. They were building a new store and they needed a new sales guy, and she asked if I would be interested and I said sure. I worked at an accounting firm where I put enough hours in that I could take a month off in the summer and help manage out here. Then it just kinda progressed from there. This is a lot more fun the looking at spreadsheets all day.

Photo by Raul Gomez

Johnny Starr of Starr Fireworks

As a kid:
The two-color spaceship

As an adult:
Beautiful Night 500-gram cake
Saturn Missile Battery 300 Shot
The Great Escape reloadable parachute
Bad Boys -- multi shot
Irish Legends -- multi shot

What got you into fireworks?
Started selling fireworks as a kid and just kept going and going and going ... As a kid growing up I just loved fireworks. I couldn’t get enough of them. I would start buying them for my own party and then I would come back and then my friends would all want to buy some. So then I would start selling them on my own, and then all of the sudden I would have to go back and buy more. So it just kinda progressed and progressed.

Photo by Raul Gomez

Brad Schmitz of Black Powder Fireworks

As a kid:
Bottle rockets
Roman candles

As an adult:
750 Saturn Missile Battery
Excalibur 24 shot canister shell
Whacky Tobacky 3” artillery shell
Firefly 500 gram cake
Supreme fireworks 180 shots

What got you into fireworks?

I loved fireworks when I was a kid. Absolutely loved it. I used to go around and collect all the fireworks catalogs from everywhere. Every year I’d do that. A guy just asked me if I ever wanted to get into the fireworks biz and I was like 16. I wasn’t ready to work yet; I was playing baseball. When I was 17 I took him up on that. It was actually the guy that owns the other big outfit, Memory Fireworks, so his name’s Ron. I worked for him for three years as a summer gig, and then I was doing the cube job thing, which was miserable … but then I got a call that they needed an area manager so I thought, “I can get paid year round to sell fireworks? Sure.”

Photo by J Earl Miller

Joe Ochoa of Joe Blow Fireworks

As a child:
Bottle rockets

As an adult:
Nine On A Board. It’s a three-inch repeater, nine times.

What got you into fireworks?
My fascination as a child. My parents would never let me buy fireworks, so when I got older, it might have been a rebellion. I’m not really sure. But I went that way because my parents wouldn’t let me have any as a child.

Photo by J Earl Miller

Brenda Mears of Generous Jerry’s

As a kid:
Snakes and sparklers. The sparklers of course were always fun, because we wrote our names in the air.

As an adult:
I like the multi-shots, I like color.

What got you into fireworks?
At the time, I was working at the school and I was looking for a part time job in the summer. The gentleman that was the manager at Generous Jerry’s asked me if I’d be interested in helping out with the fireworks. And I’m like, “Hey, yeah. Something different.” And ever since then I’ve been doing it. I’ve done this for 10 years or longer now.

Compiled by Raul Gomez, Megan Redfield and Diane Miller