Alton IL
Barge loaded with fireworks explodes
Killing one person and leaving two others missing.
1997 -- A barge loaded with
fireworks exploded during a July 4th display on the Mississippi River Thursday night (July
3), killing one person and leaving two others missing.
Another person who had been on the barge for the
9:30 p.m. blast was hurt, while a fifth person escaped injury, said Coast Guard Petty
Officer Julius Tatum.
The dead man's body was found on the barge.
Coast Guard boats searched the river for the two
missing people as firefighters extinguished the blaze. The nearby Alton Belle casino used
searchlights to light the water for rescuers.
Witnesses said the fireworks show had been going on
for 10 or 15 minutes when the barge lit up in a big white glow.
The injured man was conscious when he arrived at St.
Anthony's Hospital with a leg injury, said spokeswoman.
The man told doctors the blast blew him about 10 to
15 feet away, and he made his way to a ledge on the boat and was rescued, she said.
Coroner Dallas Burke watched the display from her
home but couldn't see the explosion. I was sitting in my chair in my living room, and the
fireworks just didn't last as long as they should, so I knew something was wrong. There
was not the big finale that there usually is, she said.
Alton is just north of St. Louis across the
Mississippi River.
Alton IL
Fireworks Show Turns Deadly 4 July 1997
-- One man
was killed and two people were missing after a fireworks display blew up Thursday night
during a Fourth of July celebration on the Mississippi River at Alton.
Severe weather, including heavy rain and lightning,
was delaying rescue efforts early today.
The victim was one of five men aboard the barge when
the fireworks exploded. All five worked for the company that was putting on the display,
authorities said.
Alton Fire Chief Don Dugan said: "They say,
`Leave it to the professionals.' We did leave it to the professionals, but something went
wrong."
The man's body was found after the fire was
extinguished, a spokesman for the Coast Guard said. The man's name was unavailable.
Another man on the barge was treated for an ankle
injury at St. Anthony's Hospital in Alton. The man was expected to be released later
today.
Lt. Kevin Lopes of the Coast Guard said the
fireworks exploded about 9:30 p.m. near the finale of the show that was attended by
thousands of spectators from the St. Louis area.
The Coast Guard closed the river near Alton so
police, fire and rescue workers could search for the missing men.
Lopes said the Coast Guard had one patrol boat and
six auxiliary vessels at the scene late Thursday.
A woman of Alton said she was on the Alton Belle
Casino when the explosion occurred.
"They were lighting all the fireworks by
hand," she said. "One man was thrown from the boat by the explosion."
She said the fireworks were launched from two barges
about 100 yards from the Alton Belle when the barges caught fire.
"There was a fireball," she said.
"The center looked to be white-hot." Some spectators thought the fireball was
part of the fireworks show.
"People were cheering," she said.
"They thought it looked really great."
The cheering stopped when the fireworks fell into
the water and flames rose from the front barge, she said.
The tugboat attached to the barges pushed the
burning barges upstream to where the Fire Department could get water on the flames, she
said.
The woman, an emergency room nurse, then left the
Alton Belle to assist the victims. She said none of the spectators on the Alton Belle or
the river bank was injured.
The Coast Guard will investigate the explosion,
officials said.
Alton IL
2 bodies found
-- The
bodies of two men missing since a deadly fireworks explosion aboard an Illinois barge were
found Saturday in the Mississippi River. One other man also was killed in that blast
during a holiday weekend that was marred by fireworks accidents.
The bodies, found near the barge where a fireworks
show blew up Thursday at Alton, Illinois, were identified, both of Chicago.
The two fireworks display technicians apparently
drowned after the explosion threw them into the water, Madison County Deputy Coroner
Robert Lewis said. A third technician died on the barge.
Authorities said the explosion occurred when an
8-inch shell fired from the barge exploded just a few feet in the air, what's known as a
"low blow."
The show was put on by a Fireworks company which
also staged a show that was interrupted by an explosion Friday at Syracuse, Indiana. A
2-year-old and two adults suffered minor injuries.
Alton IL
-- When the mortar shell blew up just a
few feet above the barge, igniting the other fireworks, many in Alton mistook it for the
show's finale.
"Fire in the hole!"
Those frantic words from a worker were probably his
last, but they probably saved the lives of two of his co-workers at Thursday night's
fireworks catastrophe on the Alton riverfront.
The worker and four other men were on a barge 120
yards off the riverfront at 9:37 p.m. when a mortar shell that should have risen 100 feet
instead fizzled after only six feet. It fell on the barge, igniting fireworks that were to
be used as part of the show's finale.
At first, spectators were awestruck by the bright
explosion.
"People were cheering," said a woman of
Alton.
Then fireworks began cascading into the river, and a
dark brown cloud formed over the barge. The riverfront crowd went silent.
Later, rescue crews found the charred body of one
worker, 45, of Markham, Ill.
One worker, 46, and another worker, both of Chicago,
were missing and presumed dead.
The warning is credited with saving the lives of the
other two men on the boat, both of Chicago. one suffered a sprained ankle escaping the
blast.
He clung to the side of the barge until a crew from
the Illinois Department of Conservation rescued him. the other escaped to an empty barge
attached to the fireworks barge. He was not hurt.
All of the men worked for a Fireworks Co. which was
paid $20,000 to put on the show.
This was the fourth year in a row that the Fireworks
Co. has conducted Alton's riverfront fireworks show, said Mayor Donald Sandidge. There
were no problems in the previous three.
"We'll have to look carefully at what
happened," Sandidge said. "Obviously, better safeguards need to be in place and
closer inspections are needed."
Alton Fire Chief Donald Dugan, who talked to several
witnesses and both survivors, put the blame for the blast on the shell that fell back onto
the barge.
He said he believed it was improperly packed.
The Coast Guard is investigating the explosion.
The Fireworks Co. could not be reached for comment.
The fireworks display began at 9:17 p.m.
Twenty minutes later, the barge erupted in light and
smoke.
"At first, everybody thought it was the finale
to the fireworks show," said a witness who is in charge of catering for the A lton
Belle, moored just upstream from the barge.
"But fireworks don't go off at boat level. We
quickly knew that something was wrong."
A Vietnam veteran, compared the thunderous boom of
the explosion to an artillery shell being fired. "And it looked like a giant version
of a book of matches igniting."
On Friday afternoon, A workers wife and his sister
awaited word on the search along the riverfront.
The two women arrived in Alton after getting word of
the blast.
The two men have been putting on fireworks displays
for the company for the past 10 years, said a sister.
The two men were good friends with the company
owners and worked for them in the summer.
The wife of one worker said her husband always made
sure he yelled out a warning if a shell malfunctioned.
She sometimes accompanied him to displays, including
one in Wisconsin last weekend. She was planning on attending the Alton fireworks but was
unable to make the trip.
"He always made sure things were safe,"
she said.
Searchers looked for the two missing men until
midnight Thursday, then search efforts were resumed at 6 a.m. Friday.
Crews were accompanied by German shepherds capable
of finding victims.
Authorities held out little hope that either man
could be alive.
The two missing men apparently were not wearing life
jackets, an obvious safety violation for workers on a fireworks barge, said Lt. Todd Hall
of the Coast Guard in St. Louis.
This was the first time the two men had put on a
fireworks display from a body of water, the wife of one said.
"It must have been a bad explosion because my
brother can swim like a fish," the sister of one said.
A couple were watching the display on a levee across
the river from the barge.
They saw a fire on the barge, then nothing for
almost three minutes, they said.
Some spectators started leaving, thinking the show
was over.
Suddenly fireworks started shooting off the end of
the barge, in a waterfall of sparks.
They said there was a giant cloud of smoke following
the explosion, which reminded them of the mushroom cloud that appears after an atomic
bomb.
"You knew doggone well that wasn't a grand
finale,".
The barge used by the fireworks people was a large,
flat, metal sand barge.
Alton Fire Chief Dugan said: "We warn people
all the time: fireworks are dangerous. This shows that even professionals can make
mistakes. It's a dangerous job."
2005
-- On Monday night, Herb Hurst and Melissa Stigman
were enjoying a typical Fourth of July with their kids, eating kettlecorn and waiting for
Hermann's 30-minute annual fireworks show to start. 
Three
workers were injured while setting off fireworks in Hermann, Missouri late last night. 
Two
of the injured men have been released from the hospital, but one person remains
hospitalized. 
Cameras
were rolling as a lit fuse set off a city's entire fireworks display all at once, injuring
three workers. 