Misdirected fireworks shot into a crowd at a Fourth of July celebration near Vail, Colorado, Friday night, causing nine people to suffer minor burns.
Avon town manager Virginia Egger said the “malfunction” occurred 17 minutes into the 23-minute show “when a shell apparently exploded in its tube rather than firing correctly into the sky.”
In videos posted on social media, you can hear the “oohs” and “ahhs” at the town of Avon’s fireworks display quickly turn into ‘whoas!,” and “what is going on?”
“The misfired shell caused the rack of 5″ shells to tip in two directions causing two to three shells to cross into the crowd,” said Egger.
The company producing Avon’s annual ‘Salute to the USA’ immediately shut the program down, according to Egger.
All nine people who “experienced minor abrasion burns were treated by emergency medical personnel at the show and released,” she said.
Greg Daly, Avon’s deputy fire chief, said it was “wonderful news that the injuries were very minor.”
“The crowd was exceptional in its calm response to what could have been a much more serious incident,” said Daly.
Despite the praise for being calm, some in the 20,000-strong crowd took to Twitter to describe their fright.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared watching the Avon firework show,” tweeted Hannah Beiersdorf, a student at the University of Colorado. “But I’m glad that we’re all safe. I hope everyone else is too.”
Egger said an investigation into what went wrong began immediately.
A message left for Western Enterprises, which bills itself as “a full-service pyrotechnic production company” on its website was not immediately returned.