Making a Spectacle : Fireworks: Matthew Denison has been creating oohs and ahs for 15 years. On Tuesday, he’ll bring his art home again to San Clemente.

Matthew Denison may not be a household name in Southern California, but when the Fourth of July comes to Orange County, thousands of people gather from miles away just to see his work.

Denison, 36, is not an artist or performer.

He is a licensed pyrotechnician, one of the faces behind the luminous displays of fireworks people have enjoyed over the years in Orange County.

For 15 years, Denison has put on hundreds of fireworks shows in cities throughout the county. He has dazzled audiences at fairs and weddings, prompting oohs and ahs in places as far away as Kwajalein Atoll near the Marshall Islands. He has entertained baseball fans at Anaheim Stadium and rock fans at Paul McCartney and George Michael concerts.

And on Tuesday, Denison--who also works full time in the maintenance department at John Wayne Airport--will once again put on his pyrotechnician’s hat and stage a fireworks show in his hometown of San Clemente.

“He loves that show in San Clemente,” said Kevin Brueckner, president of Fireworks America, the Lakeside-based company with which Denison subcontracts. “It’s been his baby for many years.”

This year’s fireworks display at the San Clemente Pier will last about 25 minutes and will be the longest show ever staged there, according to Dave Lund, the city’s economic development manager. Lund said the city is expecting to attract up to 30,000 people to the show.

It was Denison’s idea to increase the intensity of the San Clemente show, said Brueckner, who has worked with Denison on many projects.

“He’s vastly experienced,” Brueckner said. “We’ve nicknamed him ‘fast-forward’--he goes one speed in one direction.”

Denison said he was drawn to pyrotechnics at the age of 21, while working as a volunteer firefighter at the local firehouse in San Clemente. City staffers approached Denison and his colleagues, looking for someone to stage the annual fireworks show at the San Clemente Pier.

In the entire Fire Department that day, Denison was the only one who raised his hand to volunteer. He said it was the danger and intrigue that compelled him to accept the offer, as well as the irony.

“Here I was a firefighter putting out fires, with another job as a pyrotechnician lighting fires,” Denison said, laughing. “It was something different that no one else did.”

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Denison said that few people realize the work that goes on behind the scenes to produce a fireworks show. It takes about 20 people to get a typical show going, with about six people actually shooting the fireworks, he said.

For every 20-minute show, pyrotechnicians put in 12 to 15 hours of work. That includes everything from physical labor to working with fire marshals to choreographing the fireworks. “It takes a certain kind of guy to do this job,” Brueckner said. “Among other things, he has to be a business manager, a safety officer, a truck driver, as well as a pyrotechnician. He wears many hats.”

“It’s a lot of work,” Denison added. “People don’t understand that the actual guy who’s licensed never really gets to see his own show, because he’s out there working.”

And the danger of the job is real. When shooting fireworks, pyrotechnicians wear protective clothing, a helmet and goggles. Even with the gear, people get hurt, Denison said. He once burned his hand badly during a job.

“No one understands that fireworks are really explosives, just plain TNT,” he said. “It’s killed people. You have to really be on top of it.”

Denison has no plans to give it up any time soon. It’s a labor of love, not money, said older brother, Frank. And Frank Denison Jr. should know--about 11 years ago, his younger brother Matthew talked him into helping out with a show. He’s been putting on fireworks displays ever since.

“The best thing is the applause,” said Frank Denison Jr., who is also a licensed pyrotechnician. “It gives you the goose bumps.”

Matthew Denison agreed: “Listening to the crowds afterward, you can hear the boats honking and the people cheering. Once you do something like that, it gives you the feeling that you did something right.”

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Profile: Matthew Denison

Age: 36

Home: Born and raised in San Clemente

Occupation: Licensed pyrotechnician and maintenance worker at John Wayne Airport

Major pyrotechnics gigs: Fireworks shows for Paul McCartney and George Michael concerts, Sea World, Magic Mountain and Angel home games

Attitude: “Listening to the crowds afterward, you can hear . . . the people cheering. Once you do something like that, it gives you the feeling that you did something right.”

Source: Matthew Denison