Pyro Joe will make sure the Carbon County Fair’s 25th opening night goes out with a bang.

Joe Pachorkowsky has been putting on fireworks shows professionally for 20 years, but this one is going to be special.

“For us it’s a big deal for a number of reasons,” Pachorkowsky said. “Literally the first rockets I shot were into the fairgrounds property before it existed.”

He grew up on Little Gap Road and his dad worked at Bethlehem Steel. One night his dad came home with a brown Laneco bag and woke him up.

He could see yellow and blue paper towel-like rolls sticking out of the bag. The equivalent of a salute, they were his first introduction to fireworks.

His dad said, “I don’t know what this is but we’re going to light it,” and they did. It was a big fireball.

“As a kid it shook the earth,” Pachorkowsky said. They ran inside as if nothing happened.

He lost his dad in 1997, and in 2003 he decided it was time to become certified so he could shoot off fireworks legally.

On Monday night the Franklin Township resident will shoot off 25 rockets somewhere in the show in honor of the 25th anniversary of the fair and those early years with his dad.

He’s been out to fairgrounds measuring and planning for the fallout from the fireworks and making sure all is safe. “It’s a lot of planning for something that can literally change in a minute,” he said. The wind can shift, the atmosphere can change.

“It’s a yearlong affair,” he said.

He plans to shoot a few fireballs, a mixture of gas, black powder and chemicals. He describes it as a mushroom cloud, but on a smaller scale. He figures he’ll use 30 gallons of fuel that night.

There will be a lot of willow effects — similar to a weeping willow tree. He’ll have palm trees and tourbillions, a type of whistling star that spins in the sky.

Pachorkowsky said they’ll be no shortage of silver fountain fireworks in honor of the fairs silver anniversary.

He buys ready-to-shoot fireworks. “They are getting more and more advanced,” he said. And more expensive.

“The costs go up, but budgets stay the same,” Pachorkowsky said. “We work with the budget to give people a great show.”

Pachorkowsky is retired now and concentrates on his fireworks shows and is also a host for Reading and Northern trains.

Right now he does about 10 shows a year. He does have plans to expand next year but he doesn’t want to compromise his competent crew.

On Monday at the fair he’ll have 10 people helping, fireworks experts from four different states who’ve been working together for a few years.

Shooting off fireworks sounds like fun, but Pachorkowsky said it’s kind of miserable. “You’re in the field all day baking in the sun, exposed to bug bites, dust and dirt,” he said.

When it’s time for the show they don hard hats, safety goggles, a long flame retardant coat and boots, no matter how hot the temperatures are.

He visits the site ahead of time because Google Earth doesn’t give him all the details he needs.

Fireworks are fleeting, but fairgoers can grab some souvenirs.

They’ll have a booth at the fair with glow bracelets, other specials and a photo spot. Limited edition fair fireworks posters will be sold at cost.

His wife Mary handles the marketing, the contracts and the booth. He puts in a lot of time with the technical details and says he watches fireworks videos just about every night, which wears on her.

Later this year they are taking the honeymoon they never had and the subject of fireworks is not allowed.

Pachorkowsky said he still looks at swap meets for those vintage fireworks his father introduced him to when he goes to swap meets. He has seen a couple but the colors are not as he remembers them on that first night.