Playing With Fire

During our visit to a friend in Lapu-Lapu, my cousin and I made a side trip at Babag II to buy a few loads of fireworks and firecrackers for the New Year. We examined every stall and looked for the best deals that would satisfy our needs.

As my cousin searched from stall to stall, I noticed a group of men joyfully making firecrackers. The way they amused themselves while working dangerously with pyrochemicals puzzled me. So I approached them and inquired their own points of view on pyrotechnic manufacturing.

According to Benancio Morato, a pyrotechnic worker who had been making firecrackers for almost two decades now, the moment they sit in front of the pyrochemicals, the workers are already risking their lives. The real danger in pyrotechnic manufacturing is negligence. One mistake and everything else will blow sky high. Everything must be done with care and precision. Even ordinary firecrackers are delicate to produce. Once they hammer the chemicals too hard, it might blow their hands away. In the case of rockets and fireworks (the colored ones you see exploding brightly in the sky), time and patience are demanded. The chemical compounds will spark or explode if exposed under the sun for too long. The same thing will happen if it is underexposed.

Health-wise, pyrotechnic manufacturing isn't hazardous to health. As long as workers don't inhale or eat the chemicals. Benancio said that they follow certain protocols for health reasons while manufacturing firecrackers and fireworks.

Daniel Tiempo, another pyrotechnic worker, disclosed that pyrotechnic manufacturing is better than working as an extra in a construction firm or fishing the whole day. With pyrotechnic manufacturing, they get to be paid after they produce two sacks of firecrackers or fireworks at the end of the day or week. The job is not so arduous since most of them work under the shade of an improvised nipa hut.

Perhaps, the only thing that hinders their productivity (aside from the fact that only few are buying fireworks or firecrackers these days) is the coming of the rainy days. Rain brings moisture in the surroundings and spoils the quality of the chemicals being mixed and processed. That's the reason why you get to have some rockets that lose momentum and dive to nearby houses or firecrackers that fail to explode. Those firecrackers and rockets were made during rainy or humid season.

It's not an easy job, after all. Perhaps, Benancio, Glenn and the rest of their co-workers are adding fun to their work to ease the tense in making firecrackers. While I'm running out of words, feel free to browse through the pictures of our side trip at Avila Pyrotechnics Inc. in Babag II, Lapu-Lapu City.