Fireman recalls day of blast

Dear editor:

I have been involved with the fireworks show as long as I have been on the Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department.

On July 3 we were in the process of setting up our annual 4th of July fireworks display. We have done the show ourselves for the last 19 years.

On this day there were two of us that are trained pyrotechnicians, along with nine helpers, some with multiple years of assistance. The weather was clear, although cool, for July in Idaho that morning. Temperature at 9 a.m. was 60 degrees with winds approximately 20 mph. Humidity level, we found out at the time of the incident, was 37 percent. The show site is located between two of the fairways on the city golf course. Viewing area is well over 1,500 feet and farther.

We shoot approximately 3,500 total shells that include pancakes, 3-inch to 12-inch shells and other assorted shots.

Things were progressing smoothly, with us having approximately half the show wired and dropped into the mortars. As we were in the process of wiring the squibs (detonators) into the shells to be dropped into the mortars on one of the sections I heard a fellow fireman about 10' behind me say "Oh, s**t."

As I turned to see what the problem was I heard the sound of the lift charge going off on a shell. Within a split second there was a large flash and then a larger explosion. The firefighter turned and ran passed me with his shirt and sleeves on fire. I immediately hollered at everyone to clear the area ASAP since there were large amounts of open shells lying on the tubes to be loaded along with open boxes on the ground.

Almost immediately multiple shells started to explode that were in the area and since they were not loaded in the tubes for firing they were going off in random directions, setting off more every second.

I took cover behind a personal vehicle that was parked near the scene, along with another firefighter.

The smoke was intense and the explosions were deafening. When the smoke cleared enough to see an escape route we ran to an open area.

I then took a personnel account to make sure everyone else had cleared the area.

The firefighter that had the shell go off had already peeled his clothing off and was being picked up by a fellow fireman that had been on the golf course and had seen what was happening.

All personnel had been accounted for at this time. There were two others that had also been injured and were waiting for the ambulance to arrive. The Chief and a doctor that is also on the department and who were also on the golf course responded ASAP.

The Chief made the call to dispatch for fire and ambulance support at that time. The shells were still exploding randomly for approximately ten minutes after the initial blast.

Once the injured (total of three) were taken care of, we went to the task of moving the personal vehicles and drowning the fire and the other racks to keep them from lighting.

The main fireman suffered severe 2nd- and 3rd-degree burns to his hands along with flash burns to his face and neck area. The other two suffered 2nd-degree burns to a knee and hand and scrapes and bruises from the blast.

They were treated and released that day. The other spent the night in the hospital with multiple trips to Salt Lake to the burn center for his hands.

We feel very fortunate that we didn't have someone die that day.

After the smoke and shock cleared we were tasked with finding out exactly what had happened. Once we had talked to the fireman that had the original blast go off we found that he had been wearing an Under Armour T-shirt due to the cool morning, along with a cotton T-shirt.

Unknown to myself, we found out that these shirts cause a lot of static electricity against the body. When the fireman was installing the electric match into the fuse holder on the shell the static electricity snapped to the fuse, lighting it while he was holding the shell. This then set off the chain reaction of all the exposed fireworks.

Lesson learned. We now will require all cotton clothing. No rayon, nylon or other material that will cause static.

Usually, by July, we are down to 10 percent humidity, but on this day we were at 37 percent, raising the chance of static dramatically.

Other changes we will be making will be to completely secure the area from civilians. We are on the city golf course and always have citizens who want to stop and look at what we do.

We had ten personal vehicles damaged, but looking back, without them we would have had no cover and chances of injury or death would have been increased dramatically. They will be moved to a safer area next year.

We will also be doing briefings before setup day to remind everyone of the dangers and to make sure all clothing and safety procedures are in place before we start.

We feel very lucky to have not had a fatality that day.

We lost our fireworks display this year along with a lot of our equipment. All that can be replaced.

Since the accident that day, all the firefighters have returned to work with one still receiving treatment for his hands but is able to return to his job as a city police officer.

Alan Roberts