Salt Lake City (ABC 4 News) - Up to 15 roman candle shells shot toward the crowd during the Pioneer Day fireworks show at Liberty Park.
Emergency medical technicians treated ten people at the scene. Two others were transported to nearby hospitals.
Four commercial roman candles were attached to poles along a fence inside Herman Franks Park. Salt Lake City Fire Department Spokesman Scott Freitag says a catastrophic failure caused on roman candle to explode. It knocked the other three roman candles over.
"We were sitting down here by the play ground," said Michele Merrill as she showed ABC 4's Noah Bond where she was sitting and what she saw. "They went out toward 13th and they went this way and they came this way and they went that way and the one that went that way went boom," said Michele pointing in all direction from the place she was sitting.
She was sitting with her husband Mike Merrill. "I watched one explosion here on the grass, which (from) where were were, it lit the people up, exploded and that's when everyone really started hoofing it toward the street," said Mike Merrill.
The Merrill's say about 1,000 people were on the east side of the ball field when the roman candles exploded near the crowd. A lot of the people couldn't get away so instead they resorted to laying on the ground for protection.
The head Pyrotechnician for Lantis Fireworks and Lazers is Lance Wilson. He gave Bond a tour of the fireworks hours before the Saturday show. He said he spend three days with a crew of five other people to set up the fireworks. He said the set up is extremely regulated and that he followed all safety guidelines. In addition, the Salt Lake City Fire Department inspected and approved the fireworks. "The fireworks here will be totally safe," Wilson told ABC 4's Noah Bond before the show.
Freitag said it took a few minutes to stop the show because it was computerized, during that time several people were hurt. "The majority of the injuries that people received were blunt force trauma injuries. Just being hit by the shrapnel as it was coming out of the tubes," said Freitag.
It was a terrifying experience for Mike and Michele Merrill. The couple says they might not return to the show next year.
Investigators are working with manufactures and Lantis Fireworks to find out what caused the first explosion and why it knocked over three other roman candle tubes.
Both people taken to the hospital have been released.
