Photos: Pyrotechnicians behind the scenes plant fireworks to light the city of Vancouver

VANCOUVER – Under the hot mid-morning sun, Dominick Vermaak stands on an old wooden chip barge in the middle of Vancouver's English Bay. The 26-year-old Pyrotechnician traveled from South Africa to lead the first exhibition of the three-night fireworks series, officially titled Honda Celebration of Light.

The festival will see hordes of people flooding the beaches of West End to get primo views of the action. Not far from the other side of the water, lovers of more casual fireworks will line up on the shores and waterfront parks of Kitsilano. Boaters of all kinds will anchor in the bay for the celebration on July 28, August 1 and August 4.

It's a little over 24 hours before the show time for an exhibition on which Vermaak has been working for months .

designed on a computer, will be fully automated and is focused around the love. He will present "love songs" by Metallica, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran.

"Listen to music, take a look at the colors and watch how they flow with the music," said Vermaak. An expert in fireworks is accompanied by twenty or so other people on the barge, mostly men and especially expert pyrotechnicians. Vermaak and a few others work under white tents beside the main sanders while they bademble, spin and pack the explosives in foot-long tubes, which are organized on a grid and planted on the sand. Others work under the direct sun, kneeling or squatting on the pit, their clothes and their skin soiled by dust.

As the waves gently rock the barge, Vermaak remembers her first close encounter with a fireworks display. He was just a "youngster", and his mother was not satisfied with his love of explosives.

"We bought a bunch of rockets, and I like to start shooting at these things, and obviously my mom is fighting with me and is like," Pay attention! "At the age of 18, Vermaak had made friends with someone whose uncle owned a fireworks company, and he was get hired right away. Although he began most of the time carrying boxes and doing a grunt job, at age 19 he got a license to host shows. Today, seven years later, he is Chief Technician for Fireworks for Africa and represents his country in competitions around the world.

"When you get to that position, you start traveling a lot, and being on the road can be pretty hard," he says.

But "the pyro culture" is close to the heart of Vermaak.

"It's like a big giant family," he said. "We as pyro technicians, we all speak the same language.It is not like he was a lawyer and I am this guy.As a pyro, we are all pyros at the end of the day. "

But far from playing with fire, the work can be grueling. and pushing all these tubes into the ground. You're moving tons of sand, "he said," as soon as you start loading shells and throwing products, you're really excited because you know the show is going to take off soon. "

Back on the ground, the city's emergency staff is preparing for several evenings.

The Vancouver Police Service stated that it would strictly enforce a no-tolerance alcohol policy, a measure Paramedics Nicholas Mann, BC Superintendent of Emergency Health Services, says the number of people who are intoxicated is lower, which means less Medical emergencies.

In fact, work the 4 pm At 2 am, the fireworks are "one of the highlights of the summer" for many paramedics, he said, although doing the shift means working overtime, "everyone always take the opportunity "to take it because they're used to seeing the fireworks too.