Fireworks blast kills four in Florida

INVESTIGATORS were keeping their distance yesterday from the site of a fireworks blast that killed four people, worried not all of the $20,000 worth of explosives had detonated.

Workers were transferring the fireworks from one truck to another at 2.10pm on Wednesday when a series of powerful blasts erupted, shooting colourful flames into the sky and shaking the ground. Two other workers were injured.

“It just all happened at once,” said Kevin McKenzie, who was mowing grass near the truck. “Immediately it was all the fireworks going off with all the colours and the flames.”

The fireworks were bound for the annual Independence Day display today in nearby East Naples. Officials said the event had been cancelled.

“It’s just hard to believe,” said Bonita Springs city manager Gary Price. “The event you’re setting up for everybody’s enjoyment to celebrate the anniversary of our country results in such tragedies. It’s hard to believe.”

The state fire marshal’s office and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were investigating the cause. However, the bodies remained at the scene overnight because authorities did not know whether all of the fireworks had detonated, said Lee County sheriff’s spokesman Sergeant Michael Maschmeier.

The explosion occurred on a tip of vacant land at a state park in Bonita Springs, a city of about 30,000 near the Gulf of Mexico between Fort Myers and Naples.

Mary Mike Dearden, an employee of the Lover’s Key Beach Club and Resort, said she felt the earth shake. Guests at the resort saw smoke and heard explosions from the park, less than a mile from the resort building.

“At the front desk we heard the explosion starting like a clap of thunder and then it kept rolling,” she said.

“As it rolled on it felt like a jet breaking the sound barrier, but it kept going and we knew it was something else.”

Hours after the blast, smoke rose from a blackened pine tree and the charred remains of the two trucks, which had been parked back-to-back. A pick-up truck that was parked a short distance away was also burned. One injured man was in critical condition at a hospital in Tampa and a woman was hospitalised in good condition, officials said.

The fireworks were from Sunset Fireworks. Price said the company had orchestrated the city’s fireworks display last year and shot them from a barge. The city spent $20,000 for a planned 30-minute show this year, he said.