COUNTYWIDE : Crash! Bang! Just Another Day at Work

Tony Snegoff fondly recalled his first day on the job. First, he was shot, then hit by a truck, he said. After that, he had to fall out of a fourth-story window, then plunge head-first into the ocean from a towering pier.

“You know, this is really the only job I can think of where you get paid to play,” Snegoff mused Monday as he wiped fire retardant gel from his face and looked toward the crowd of people gathered in the Anaheim Stadium parking lot for another special effects demonstration.

Snegoff, a 35-year-old stuntman, had just acted as coordinator for a spectacular stunt performed as part of a daylong safety seminar for more than 100 Orange County Fire Department officials and members of the film industry. Two stuntmen ran toward the onlookers, hitting ramps en route that threw them about 20 feet, setting off an explosion and sending a brilliant fireball into the air.

The purpose of the seminar, sponsored by the California State Fire Marshal with help from local fire departments and the California Film Commission, was to promote safety on film sets and bring together fire officials and the people involved in making movies, according to deputy state fire marshal Manny Chavez.

Yet another purpose, as Orange County Supervisor William G. Steiner said in a press conference, was simply to encourage those who make films to make them here.

Steiner noted that the Board of Supervisors recently decided to encourage filmmaking here by streamlining the permit process. It is also trying to set up what he called a “one-stop film shop,” which will be run by the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.

Hawthorne Fire Marshal Tim O’Rourke said the seminar allowed fire officials to learn what to look for when they inspect film sets for possible hazards and how to find the information they need.

As for Snegoff, he had a less complicated way of judging the success of the day and the stunts performed.

“It was perfect,” he said. “We’re all still standing.”