Fire Inspector Dan Bushkin keeps EDC Headliners Out of Harm’s Way

Smoke machines and lights create ambiance, hypnotic strobes and LED panels draw your gaze inward, and massive green lasers divert your eyes out toward the infinite blackness of the night sky. But fire—fire elicits a primal satisfaction. You can see it, you can hear it, and if you’re close enough, you can feel it.

For Clark County Fire Inspector Dan Bushkin, the epic view of EDC Vegas from the Speedway grandstand is logistics in motion. Plumes of orange flame shoot from the tops of the stages, steel orbs full of fire rotate at high speeds, just a few feet above the heads of passing admirers, and fireworks pop off in all directions at various intervals throughout the long night. Bushkin has the unenviable task of making sure the decorative never becomes destructive.

We want to make sure everyone has a good time, but our goal is to make sure everyone goes home at night.

“Our goal is to make sure everyone goes home at night,” he says. “That’s it. We want to make sure everyone has a good time, but if there are no incidents come Monday, that was a successful show to me.”

Some people collect kandi. Bushkin collects permits—permits for art, permits for fuel farms, permits for tents, and of course, permits for pyro. Lots and lots of pyro, powered by over 77,000 gallons of various fuel varieties. On any given night, 25 fire inspectors spread out among the various stages to oversee pyro. Two fire engines with full crews are parked inside the Speedway, while another truck and a rescue team are stationed outside. All in, Bushkin has nearly 50 people working at any given time to ensure the safety of Headliners and performers alike.

“The first year [of EDC Vegas], I couldn’t get 20 guys out here,” he laughs. “Some were coerced, some were dragged in. Now I have to fight people off.” He points toward the streams of people who make their way through the labyrinth of art installations, carnival rides and stages. “I mean, look at this. Why would you not want to be here?”

Today is Sunday, and Dan is happy. Yesterday? Not so much. “Everyone was pulling me in 25 different ways. I had hundreds of text messages on my phone. Millions of calls.” He doesn’t sleep as much as nap when the flag drops on Thursday afternoon, but Sunday the dust begins to settle. “Today is different. Today is awesome.”

When Insomniac first came to Clark County back in early 2011 and pitched their plan to host an electronic music festival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, most people around the conference room table looked puzzled. Not Bushkin. A native Southern Californian, he grew up attending Insomniac events and other warehouse parties in Riverside and San Bernardino, and like the people he’s surrounded by all weekend, he wears his personality on his sleeves. (“I’d rather have art on my body than hanging on a wall somewhere,” he reasons.) Before he took this particular job, he was a firefighter. Before that he was in the military, though he won’t say in which branch. He’s younger than most in his profession, but this is Vegas we’re talking about, and he looks every inch the part of EDC Fire Marshall, right down to the “Live Wire” tattoo between his knuckles.

“I love Vegas,” he says. “It’s different than most other places for fire inspectors. Out here, we have the Strip. We draw the most unique and dynamic acts, parties and events. The stuff I get to see, most people never get to see or participate in.”

The planning for this year’s show began about one week after the last Headliner exited the gates of EDC 2013, and the process is truly a collaborative one. How can things be bigger and better the next time around? How do we top the fireworks finale? How do you improve on the largest stage ever built in North America, fashioned from the most scaffolding ever amassed in one US location since the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in the mid-‘80s? Bushkin, like so many other collaborators in the Insomniac family, has an outspoken voice, especially when it comes to fire.

“If you know Pasquale, you know his wheels are always turning,” says Bushkin. “We’ll be talking and I’ll be like, ‘You know Bob? He’s another pyro that works here on site. He’s got a cannon that shoots a 150-foot flame that drains out eight pounds of liquid in half a second.’ He’s like, ‘I gotta have that!’”

“When you’re on the cutting edge, you get creative. It’s cool when people say, ‘Look at this event, it was awesome!’ It’s like, yeah, I had a part in that. That’s rewarding.”