An illegal fireworks display explosion on South Beach rocked Crescent City Thursday evening, July 4th, sending multiple individuals to the hospital with many different injuries including a critically injured young boy.
According to Crescent Fire and Rescue Chief Kevin Carey, Crescent Fire and Rescue was dispatched to reports of an explosion on the beach just before 10:30pm, and the Del Norte County Sheriff in conjunction with Crescent Fire and Rescue Chief Kevin Carey established a Unified Command Post as panic broke out after multiple collections of illegal fireworks were ignited and expended as crowds began to leave the official Crescent City fireworks presentation.
Upon arrival, the enormity of the situation quickly became apparent and mutual aid from multiple agencies including the California Highway Patrol, Crescent City Police Department, Del Norte Ambulance, Cal-Ore Life Flight and Fortuna Fire, were requested as confusion and chaos brought multitudes of individuals needing medical assistance to emergency personnel who then triaged the injured on scene, ultimately closing U.S. Hwy. 101 in both directions for more than 2 hours.
According Crescent Fire and Rescue Chief Kevin Carey, the incident began after a lit firework ignited a nearby collection of fireworks that then ignited other large collections of illegal fireworks that then fired off uncontrollably injuring as many 14 individuals in the surrounding area, and sending 8 to the hospital with various types of injuries.
A 3 year boy was among the most seriously injured and was Life Flighted out of the area after being struck by an ignited firework.
The initial cause of the explosion is unclear and remains under investigation at this time.
