Kagoshima -- Japan
9 Die in Japan Fireworks Blast

2003 -- The roll of fireworks incidents, ashore and at sea, continued with a massive explosion and fire on 12 April at the Nangoku Fireworks Co in Kagoshima, 990km southwest of Tokyo. The blast left nine dead and four injured.

The explosion demolished four of the company's workshop buildings. The initial explosion at the mixing area touched off blasts in the neighbouring gunpowder storage area as well as another storage area for fireworks.

About 50 houses located within a 500-meter radius of the factory were damaged by shock waves. Seismographs at a local weather station recorded a magnitude 2 tremor believed to have been caused by the blast.

Some 29 workers had been inside the factory when the explosion happened, many working indoors because of heavy rain hampering outdoor operations. At 13 April, the death toll reached nine with the discovery of the bodies of two employees initially listed as missing. Investigators said the explosion occurred in a room where two workers were mixing aluminium, magnesium and gunpowder used in a firework known as Niagara Falls. Investigators cited static electricity on workers' clothes and heat generated by friction from the gunpowder as possible causes of the blast.

-- An explosion ripped through a fireworks factory Friday in southern Japan, killing seven people and injuring four others, officials said.    The afternoon explosion at the Fireworks Co. in Kagoshima, about 620 miles southwest of Tokyo, sparked a fire that destroyed three buildings at the factory and shattered windows at a nearby school, said a state spokeswoman.    Three of the injured suffered serious burns. The fourth injured victim was walking by the factory when it exploded and suffered only minor injuries.