Cue the ban fireworks due to terror threat speach in 5...4..Follow

And you thought your state's firework display was exciteing. In sheboigan, fireworks display shells you!


http://sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060701/SHE0101/607010593/1973

Nine injured by fireworks display

By Eric Litke
Sheboygan Press staff

ELKHART LAKE — Nine people were injured, one seriously, when an Elkhart Lake fireworks launch went awry Friday night and sent a shell shooting horizontally onto shore from a barge in the lake, Elkhart Lake Police Chief Randy Boeldt said.


Thousands of people had gathered on beaches and decks to watch the annual Firemen's Picnic Independence Day display at Firemen's Park near Siebkens Resort about 9:30 p.m. when a rack of fireworks tipped over less than a minute into the show, Boeldt said.

"It was mass chaos for 10 seconds; it was over as quick as it happened," Boeldt said.

The workers on the barge were uninjured, protected by a shelter on the barge that collapsed on top of them but insulated them from the explosions, Boeldt said. But several people watching the fireworks about 100 yards from the beach were not so fortunate.

A 24-year-old woman sitting in a screened-in porch next to the Siebkens Resort office — south of Elm Street — suffered "major burns" and a puncture wound to the abdomen, Boeldt said. Two other people nearby also were taken to Sheboygan hospitals.

Six people were treated at the scene for minor burns, but were not transported, Boeldt said.

Boeldt said he did not know the names and hometowns of the injured people. Boeldt said he believed the injuries to all five were from shrapnel and the heat of the explosion, not a direct hit from the shell.

"It hit the pavement, skipped, and then exploded," Boeldt said.

Corey Mattin, 21, of Milwaukee, was watching the show on the beach with his wife when the shell shot directly over them about 75 feet in the air.

"The entire boat blew up, exploded, and it shot one more firework over," Mattin said. "I thought it was going to hit us. It went right over our heads. We could see every detail — it was like a missile from Iraq or something."

Mattin, like many others on the scene, feared the worst for the workers on the barge after seeing the explosion.

"Sirens came from everywhere, boats surrounded the (barge) and it was pretty much a horrific show," he said. "I actually prayed for those people because, that's bad."

At 11 p.m., officials were working to defuse the remaining rounds on the barge, Boeldt said. Some of the rounds were sent into the water in the explosion, and had to be retrieved and disabled.

Mark Koelpin, who was bartending on the beach when the fireworks began, said he watched the shell fly from the barge over the beach and over the house.

"It didn't look like it was supposed to be happening. I was hoping nobody was hurt," he said. "You could see the explosion, like the orange, and it looked like it was pretty bad."

Among the units at the scene were the Elkhart Lake Fire Department, the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department, Town of Rhine Fire Department, Glenbeulah First Responders, Plymouth Ambulance.

"It was as if it was a movie," Mattin said. "It was definitely one fireworks show I'll never forget in my entire life."