By day, Robert Pichler is a safety analyst for the U-M Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). By night, he plays with fire—fireworks, that is.
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As a display operator for Wolverine Fireworks and a charter member of the Michigan Pyrotechnic Arts Guild (MPAG), Pichler conducts his firework displays as though they were full-length plays, complete with two acts and a grand finale.
“It’s a performance art. The night sky is my canvas and fireworks are my paint,” Pichler says. “It’s also a science; the creation of a variety of visual or audible effects as a by-product of a controlled explosion is no small feat.”
From 2000-03, Pichler made more than 250,000 spectators ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ at the annual summer fireworks display at Ford Lake in Ypsilanti.
MPAG has been recognized internationally for its artistic displays, winning the 2000 club trophy from the Pyrotechnic Guild International (PGI). The honor included an invitation that year to create the grand finale show at PGI’s 2002 international convention in Fargo, N.D.
Pichler’s next show will be Memorial Day at the Huckleberry Railroad in Flint.
For each second that the life of a firework is splashed across the sky, firework gurus spend weeks in behind-the-scenes production. In a typical 25-30 minute show, 1,000 fireworks are shot into the air. Each firework casing or shell can take up to four days to produce and the interior stars may take two weeks.
“A truly impressive show utilizes shells displaying a wide variety of combinations of color and effect,” Pichler says. Shot from high density polyethylene mortars in the ground, each firework shell ranges from 3-12 inches and contains tiny stars made from a gunpowder and charcoal composite. These stars also contain different metallic compounds to produce unique colors and are arranged in the shell to generate the variety of shapes spectators will see explode in the sky.
Currently, Pichler performs 10-12 shows each year with crews upwards of 12 people. While he hand-fires segments in all of his displays using road flares, he says the industry is evolving in the direction of productions that are electronically fired.
“Laptop computers are revolutionizing the quality of shows all over the planet,” Pichler says. These productions often include choreographing fireworks to music.
Fireworks first caught Pichler’s eye when he was a young Boy Scout, but his hobby took off in 1990 when a high school friend asked him to help out at a show. He then professionally manufactured fireworks at the Independence Professional Fireworks Company in Hillsdale County. After friends and co-workers died in a lab explosion at Independence in 1998, he gave up the mass production of fireworks and focused his attention on fireworks display.
“Most of my hobbyist endeavors today pertain to the creation of new or interesting effects,” Pichler says.
