Meet Your Pahrump Fireworks Festival Pyrotech!

Since 2015, Red Apple Fireworks® has focused on creating the biggest, baddest fireworks shows on the West Coast, and it's all thanks to this guy: PyroJim.

We sat down with PyroJim before the 2019 Fireworks Festival in Pahrump so the #Pyrosquad can get to know the man who brings on ALL the booms every year for Red Apple®.

Jim, a native of Anaheim, California, says that it was watching Disney Land's fireworks show as a child that first made him fall in love with fireworks. He quickly grew to love the science behind fireworks - the chemistry and understanding involved in mixing the powders, pressing them, and altering them to do different things.

"It's the coolest," he says. "And, like any other little boy, it made me feel a sense of power."

Though there is no formal pyrotechnic school, Jim tells us that some companies will offer training courses, although it is strictly based on who you know and showing that you are able to endure long hours of setting up and lifting heavy objects.

"If you prove yourself and shed a couple drops of blood and sweat, they keep calling you and you get to be an independent contractor and work for multiple companies!" Jim says genially.

Having blown things up professionally for the last fourteen years, Jim has worked with a steady stream of artists, performers, venues, and more.

Game of Thrones fountain show at the Bellagio 2019