Fireworks detonate on Ocean City beach, 1 injured
By Greg Ng
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OCEAN CITY, Maryland (WBAL) — Fireworks detonated Sunday morning on the Ocean City beach, injuring an employee who was setting up for July Fourth festivities.
Several videos of the explosion were tweeted around 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Video obtained by 11 News courtesy of Gilly Gene, who was on the beach, shows the explosion.
According to Ocean City police, the Ocean City Fire Department was alerted for a vehicle fire at Dorchester Street and the beach.
“Firefighters arrived to find that no vehicle was on fire; however, there was an unintentional discharge of fireworks that were being set up on the beach for the town’s fireworks show,” police said.
Police said an employee of the fireworks company suffered minor injuries and refused to be taken to a hospital. No beach or boardwalk patrons were injured, police said.
“Our fire marshals are on the scene and will investigate the cause of the unintentional discharge,” Ocean City Fire Chief Richie Bowers said in a statement posted on Facebook. “Prior to the fireworks being off loaded from the vehicle, fire marshals secure a safe zone around the fireworks and put other safety protocols in place. It is this very zone and safety protocols that kept anyone else from being injured.”
Ocean City had planned to have fireworks at two locations Sunday. Town fire marshals are conducting safety inspections at both fireworks locations. The cause of the fireworks discharge was not immediately known.
A perimeter around the fireworks site has been established and will remain in place until the safety inspections are complete, which could take several days. Areas of the Boardwalk have also been closed to pedestrian traffic until a thorough safety inspection has been completed.
Due to an abundance of caution, all firework shows in Ocean City have been canceled.
The Maryland State Fire Marshal tweeted that it is “monitoring the fireworks explosion in @OCMaryland. Ocean City Fire Marshals Office is the lead agency and will be conducting the investigation into the incident.”
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