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By Sherryl Anne G. Quito and Darwin G. Amojelar
First of two parts
IN THE Philippines, many people think the
celebration of Christmas and New Year is only a matter of making as
much noise as they can. The first firecracker explosions are heard
in October. Then, the noise level goes up during all of
November and December. On Dec. 31, from early in the morning
until midnight of New Year’s Eve, firecrackers explode without
interruption.
In recent years, the use of fireworks and other
pyrotechnic devices has no longer been limited to the celebration of
Christmas and New Year. Increasingly, special family and company
occasions like weddings, college graduations, company inaugurations
and, of course, town fiestas sizzle and boom. Firecrackers and
fireworks are used to attract — or to advertise — good luck.
Compared to those used in Europe and North
America, firecrackers in the Philippines are amazingly more
powerful. They are veritable mini-dynamites with the added
talent to burst off with impressive displays of colorful designs and
figures.
Philippine fireworks production technology has
developed into an industry capable of producing world-class
pyrotechnic devices. This is owed to the late Fernando Sta. Ana of
Bulacan. He is considered the country’s “Father of Modern
Fireworks and Pyrotechnics.”
A family affair
Arcadio Sta. Ana, son of Fernando, owns a
pyrotechnics production plant. He says it was not his father
but his less famous grandfather, Valentin Sta. Ana, who actually
started the manufacture and large-scale production of fireworks in
the Philippines. Arcadio proudly gives his father credit,
however, for giving the modernizing turn in the development of
Philippine pyrotechnics production.
Valentin Sta. Ana learned how to produce
fireworks during the Spanish regime. In those days, the use
and handling of fireworks and firecrackers were restricted to
specialists. These were the fireworks makers themselves.
A Spanish priest in Sta. Maria, Bulacan manufactured sky rockets (kuwitis)
and used these as a gimmicky substitute for church bells to rouse
the townsfolk from sleep for the Christmas simbang gabi or
dawn Masses. This priest taught Valentin Sta. Ana the rudiments of
fireworks making and helped him achieve mastery in the craft.
However, even when the Philippines had become an
American colony, because the manufacture and sale of fireworks
remained illegal — and their use restricted to special occasions,
like town fiestas — Valentin Sta. Ana never went into the
fireworks business.
But he did pass on his know-how to his children.
It was in 1938, Arcadio Sta. Ana continues his
narration, when Fernando set up his own fireworks company.
Fernando managed to increase his know-how by dealing with experts
from China who had come to settle in the Philippines.
Fernando’s brothers and sisters also went into
the pyrotechnics industry, based in Bulacan. But it was
Fernando Sta. Ana who became a big success in it.
Like Valentin, Fernando taught and trained his
children. At 16, Arcadio Sta. Ana was already helping out in
his father’s factory and getting all the training to become a
master fireworks maker.
In 1996, Arcadio Sta. Ana put up his own
company, Viva Pyrotechnics. Located in the same manufacturing plant
as his father’s, Viva is safely positioned in a one-hectare lot in
Balasing, Sta. Maria, Bulacan. Viva Pyrotechnics is a success
producing world-class fireworks and pyrotechnics entertainment.
It is also respected for being vigilant about industrial safety.
Sta. Ana says, “Not a single product is released from the plant
without an assurance of safety and good quality.”
Pyrotechnics industry: A history
Fireworks were among the earliest items in the
Philippine-China trade. But modern firework manufacturing is
attributed to some Americans who taught the craft to Filipinos after
the Second World War.
While some quantity is exported, locally made
pyrotechnics products are sold mainly to domestic buyers. The
trade in fireworks goes on nationwide throughout the year. But the
peak seasons are May and December when most towns have their
fiestas. And December has Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
The Industrial Technology Development Institute,
an agency of the Department of Science and Technology, says in a
report that pyrotechnics is known as an art comparable to music,
visual effects, and theater, especially when the pyrotechnics
produce patterns of sound, motion, flare and smoke.
However, the misuse and mishandling of fireworks
— and numerous tragic and costly fires and explosions — have led
the Philippine government to criminalize fireworks manufacture and
trading at some periods of our history.
Fireworks were made illegal in 1966 after a
fire, which started in a fireworks factory in Meycauayan, Bulacan,
killed 26 people. Fireworks have been causing similar
tragedies and serious property damage every year. On Dec. 30,
1988, a cracker factory exploded in the town of Bocaue, killing 12
and wounding 23. The explosion was as loud as a bomb — and as
devastating. It leveled five houses and tore down the roofs
and walls of 10 other houses.
Meycauayan and some adjacent
municipalities in Bulacan have always been the country’s center of
fireworks production. It was been so — even during the
periods when fireworks were banned. Illegal production
continued there, registering no decrease in production at all.
This has led some observers to say that the outlawing of firecracker
and fireworks production only served to raise their prices and lower
safety standards.
Many kinds of dangerous firecrackers are
produced all over the country. The most notorious seems to be
a small bomb called Super Lolo (Super Grandfather). A person within
two meters of a Super Lolo blast in a closed space will suffer
temporary — maybe even permanent — loss of hearing.
Fireworks manufacturing and usage improved
through the years when the ban was lifted. But when martial
law was imposed in 1972, fireworks making, sale and usage were again
made illegal. For the next 20 years, fireworks manufacturing
stagnated, forcing manufacturers and distributors to operate
underground.
The quality of Philippine pyrotechnic devices
degenerated to the point that most factories geared their production
to “bangers” and skyrockets.
Finally — after seeing that the Philippines
was spending precious dollars importing fireworks and firecrackers
and at the same time losing out on potential exports — lawmakers
in January 1992 passed Republic Act 7183, the Fireworks Law.
It legalizes the manufacture, sale and use of “allowable” types
of pyrotechnic devices.
The law also bans the importation of finished
fireworks, thereby protecting and promoting the development of the
industry.
Chemicals used in pyrotechnics
The term pyrotechnics refers to the art and
science of fireworks. It includes substances or devices that
produce, when ignited or activated, sound, smoke, motion or flare.
The making of fireworks originated in China around 1st Century AD
with the invention of black powder. The usefulness of pyrotechnic
reactions derives from their being exothermic, self-sustaining and
self-contained. Pyrotechnics is based on the established principles
of thermochemistry and thermophysics, which are extensions of the
general science of thermodynamics.
The pyrotechnics industry produces two major
products: the firecrackers and fireworks or pyrotechnic devices.
Firecrackers are fireworks that are contained in paper cylinders
that are discharged to make noise. Fireworks, on the other hand, are
intimate mixtures of finely powdered fuel and oxidants which, when
ignited, explode violently or burn steadily as required.
Among the firecracker products sold in the local
market are paper caps, small sheets or strips of paper used for toy
guns; small triangulo, wrapped in brown paper with gunpowder content
less than the bawang; bawang, packed in cardboard tied around
with abaca string and wrapped in the shape of a garlic; El Diablo (labintador),
tabular in shape which measures 1+ inches in length; watusi, which
when ignited by friction, produces a cracking sound and dancing
motion; Judah’s belt, a string of firecrackers consisting of about
hundreds of El Diablo or small triangulo; baby rocket, a firecracker
with a stick which is designed to soar a few meters into the air
before exploding; and the sky rocket (kwitis), a larger version of
the baby rocket that can reach 40 to 50 feet before exploding.
Among the fireworks or pyrotechnic devices
manufactured, sold and distributed in the local market are the
following: bombshells, used in aerial displays to produce various
kinds of colors and effects; sparklers, designed to light up and
glow after ignition; fountain, designed to provide various rising
colors and intermittent lights when ignited; mabuhay, sparklers
bunched into a dozen pieces; Roman candle, similar to a fountain but
shaped like big candles; trompillo, designed to spin clockwise then
counter clockwise and provides various lights when ignited; airwolf,
a kind of sky rocket-shaped like an airplane which emits a
whistle-like sound before exploding; and butterfly, a
butterfly-shaped device designed to rise above the ground while
providing light.
According to a paper presented in the Industry
Forum on Pyrotechnics organized by the Pyrotechnics Regulatory Board
of Bulacan, the essential components of pyrotechnics are substances
that supply oxygen, and substances that combine with oxygen to give
off heat and light. Oxidizing agents like chlorates, nitrates and
perchlorates, better known as oxidizing radicals provide the oxygen.
When extra fast burning is needed, like in rockets and firecrackers,
metal powder is often added. The finer the powder, the faster the
burning rate. The various colors are given off by incorporating
compounds of heavy metals. A large number of inflammable substances
are also blended in the formulation to act as binder.
Conclusion
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