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A 2-year-old boy was injured Friday in Syracuse in a fireworks accident.
Christopher Wooldridge Jr., of Syracuse, was taken to Goshen General Hospital with a small cut beneath one eye, minor burns and possibly a ruptured ear drum. Twelve to 15 people were examined at the scene for minor burns, but none was transported to the hospital.
Mike Cavender, the father of 5-year-old Stephen Cavender, said he transported his son to Goshen General Hospital for treatment. Cavender said this morning that his son suffered first degree burns on his neck.
Cavender and his two children were seated on a blanket with the Wooldridge family at the time of the incident. "The fireworks went straight into the crowd and blew up on the blanket," Cavender said.
Cavender said his son was too afraid to ride in the ambulance. By the time Cavender was able to get his son to his car to transport him to the hospital, the fireworks had resumed and "my son almost went into shock when he heard the fireworks."
Syracuse fire chief Jerry Byrd plans to implement changes in crowd rules for next year. Spectators stood 200-250 feet from where the fireworks were lit this year. Byrd wants to push the safety margin back at least 500 feet next year.
Byrd said Mad Bomber Fireworks Productions held a permit to produce a show Friday night that was interrupted when a ground display containing 40 shells exploded unexpectedly.
"One of the tubes went off inside, and it kind of blew the display apart," Byrd said. Instead of the rockets going off in a chain reaction into the air, they exploded at the same time in different directions, some heading toward the lake and some into the crowd. "It started blowing every which way."
A Mad Bomber Fireworks show at Alton, Ill., ended Thursday night when an explosion on a river barge killed one worker outright. The bodies of two other workers who had been missing and presumed drowned were recovered Saturday at a Mississippi River dam near the accident site.
At Mad Bomber offices in Plymouth, company co-owner Mike Horvath refused to comment.
After the Syracuse accident, Byrd said he ordered the crowd back several hundred feet from the Syracuse Lake shoreline where the fireworks were set off.
He said he allowed aerial displays to resume but stopped Mad Bomber workers from setting off a second ground display.
The show resumed about 30 minutes after the injured were taken from the scene. "We were pretty lucky, really," said Byrd.
Byrd said Mad Bomber Fireworks has done two shows at Syracuse over the Fourth of July holiday for four years. The company had a permit from the state fire marshal's office and proof of insurance, he said.
Byrd said he has no authority to stop Mad Bomber Productions, or any fireworks company with the proper permits, from putting on a display.
Byrd is leaving the investigation open to hear of any further problems or injuries. He will be making a report to the state fire marshal.
