Kilgore -- Texas
Bodies found after fireworks warehouse explosion
2003 -- An anguished fireworks warehouse owner expressed sympathy for three
employees, including his own father, who were killed when explosions tore through the
building, the second deadly fireworks accident this week.
"I ask you to pray for the peace
and comfort of us and all that are hurting," "Three wonderful people ...
tragically lost their lives doing something they truly loved to do."
The three workers' bodies were
recovered early Friday, hours after the blasts. Five people suffered minor injuries, and
the warehouse and six nearby houses were damaged or destroyed.
Twelve fireworks displays planned
Friday night in east Texas cities were canceled, including Kilgore.
On Wednesday, a truck packed with
fireworks exploded in Bonita Springs, Florida, killing five workers who had been unloading
the shipment for Independence Day displays there and in Naples.
Investigators have said both blasts
appeared to be accidental. "We're leaning toward static electricity, some kind of
spark," Kilgore Police Chief said Friday.
The blasts shot fireworks and other
debris several blocks in this town 115 miles southeast of Dallas. About 25 people were
displaced, including 15 who were in one home where relatives had gathered for the holiday
weekend. The American Red Cross was helping them find places to stay and secure their
homes.
Left behind were charred houses with
buckled roofs, missing shingles and flattened fences.
The ATF said thousands of pounds of
fireworks were inside the warehouse and a tractor-trailer rig parked outside the building.
The area was secured Friday morning, and the remaining fireworks were being taken to a
remote firing range to be detonated.
3 missing in Texas fireworks blast.
-- An explosion rocked a warehouse full of fireworks in this small Texas town
Thursday, destroying the building with three people inside, authorities said. The three
workers were missing Thursday evening, Kilgore Mayor said. At least five people were
injured.
"It's pretty bad," he said.
"We've got houses in the neighborhood damaged, people out of their houses, and we're
still fighting a fire although we've got the explosives contained, we believe.
The blast destroyed offices near
downtown Kilgore, a small town about 115 miles southeast of Dallas. The company was
preparing for a fireworks show in Kilgore on Friday. "There was a hell of a
boom that I wondered if somebody ran into the side of the building. The floors shook and
everything,"
"The walls, everything. It just
vibrated the heck out of everything." "It was bad, people were
all running scared. This is a small town. This never happens here," said owner of a
convenience store a half mile away from the warehouse.
An administrative assistant with the
Kilgore Police Department, said police evacuated an area around the explosion covering
several 
blocks.
Chief executive officer of Laird
Memorial Hospital in Kilgore, said the five injuries were minor, mostly cuts and scrapes.
But he said the full extent of injuries was not yet known.
"Emergency workers are combing the
area, but we've not gotten any assessment of any injuries out there, so we're kind of in a
waiting mode right now."
The blast came a day after a truck
loaded with fireworks exploded into flames in a Florida town on the Gulf Coast, killing
five people and injuring one. A truck on the scene was destroyed in the
blaze.
-- Since a
series of powerful explosions tore through a fireworks warehouse across the street from
her Kilgore home, a woman repeatedly has told friends, "Wake me up! Wake me up!"
The woman and her East Texas community, the
nightmare that killed three people is no dream.
After a second night spent in a motel room provided
by the American Red Cross, the 41-year-old mother of three awoke again Saturday to harsh
reality: It may be weeks or even months before she can move back into her home, which
sustained heavy damage.
But at least she and her family
survived. "That could have been us," She said of the workers
who died in Thursday's blast at the Pyrotechnics warehouse. "The only thing between
me and them was the street. We're just thankful to be alive."
The woman and her husband hoped to meet Saturday
with an insurance adjuster and salvage a few personal items, such as clothes and important
papers, from amid shattered glass and strewn insulation. Relatives
of the dead began making funeral arrangements as investigators started compiling reports
on what went wrong.
Kilgore officials will make the final ruling on the
cause of the explosions.
Kilgore public safety director has said a spark,
perhaps from static electricity, probably caused the explosion that shot fireworks and
other debris several blocks in the city about 115 miles southeast of Dallas.
The warehouse and six nearby houses were damaged or destroyed. Five
people suffered minor injuries.
Fourth of July fireworks displays planned in 12 East
Texas cities, including Kilgore, had to be canceled after the explosion.
"Under the circumstances, everybody pretty well
understood," said mayor of Athens, where a holiday celebration proceeded with food
and music.
The woman said she knew the nearby warehouse dealt
in fireworks, but she didn't realize the extent. The business was appropriately registered
and had no prior problems, according to the ATF. "We thought
it was Roman candles and stuff like that,"
The woman said. "I didn't know they had those
kind of explosives over there. I was really surprised that they would let something like
that go in right across the street."
Kilgore -- Texas
A
day after a fireworks explosion killed five people in Florida, a blast rocked a Kilgore,
Texas, warehouse full of fireworks, destroying the building and trapping three people
inside.
Search teams working overnight found the bodies of
the three people who had been missing since the explosion. At least five other people were
injured and nearby homes and businesses were damaged.
"It's pretty bad," said Joe Parker,
Kilgore's mayor. "We've got houses in the neighborhood damaged, people out of their
houses, and we're still fighting a fire although we've got the explosives contained, we
believe."
The blast destroyed the offices of Lamb
Entertainment near downtown Kilgore, about 115 miles southeast of Dallas. Authorities say
the company was preparing for 12 fireworks shows Friday, including one in Kilgore.
James Kenney was inside his house across the street
when a shock wave from the blast picked him up and threw him against a wall.
"Our house is pretty much demolished,"
said Kenney, in an interview with the Longview-News Journal. "The walls are
down."
Jay Pemberton, who works at KTPB Radio - about two
miles from the site of the explosion - said he heard "a hell of a boom" that
made him wonder if someone had driven into the side of his building.
"The floors shook and everything,"
Pemberton said. "It just vibrated the heck out of everything."
"It was bad, people were all running scared.
This is a small town. This never happens here," said Justin Singh, owner of a
convenience store a half mile away from the warehouse.
Marti Mason, an administrative assistant with the
Kilgore Police Department, said police evacuated an area around the explosion covering
several blocks.
It is not immediately clear what caused the
explosion, said Capt. Ken Hartley of the Gregg County Sheriff's Department.
Bob Ellzey, chief executive officer of Laird
Memorial Hospital in Kilgore, said the five people treated there suffered minor injuries,
mostly cuts and scrapes.
The blast occurred as investigators in the Gulf
Coast town of Bonita Springs, Fla., picked through the blackened site where a truck full
of fireworks exploded Wednesday, shaking the ground for at least a mile, spewing colorful
bursts of flames from the vehicle and scattering debris for 100 yards in every direction.
