“What went wrong?”
    Local and state fire investigators are still trying to determine the answer to that question after a horrifying ending to what had been a picture-perfect Fourth of July celebration in Charles City Friday night.
    At least 37 people were injured and treated at Floyd County Medical Center after an apparent misfire on the final big volley of the night at the annual Fourth of July fireworks show. Entertainment turned to terror as the accident sent a huge fireball and exploding shells into part of the huge crowd gathered around the launch site along the banks of the Cedar River downtown.
    “(The show) was real good for a while and then all of a sudden I just saw a big glow of red, like a big fireball and the next thing you know sparks and everything just started flying right at us, just skimming right across the ground, just going everywhere,” said Brenda Schweiger, who had been watching the fireworks from the edge of the grass just north of Main Street and immediately west of the bridge. “My exact thought was this is it, we're going to die.”
    She said people started scampering and going every which direction to try and escape the oncoming blast.
    “I dove out of my chair I was sitting in to try to go back for my children to cover them up. It just got crazy,” remarked Schweiger.
    “I just saw a bunch of fire, a fireball coming this way,” said spectator Emily Watson. “It was like a bunch of little fireworks just coming toward us. They started to explode. It was just like skating right across the street and then I saw them exploding right in the street here...In a split second, it started coming at me.”
    Watson was in the crowd gathered in the grassy area just north of Main Street and east of Court Street with several family members enjoying the show when things quickly unraveled. The explosion sent the crowd scrambling for cover, Watson said, including herself as she worked to keep a family member safe.
    “I just saw people ducking, covering,” Watson said. “I closed my eyes. I covered my grandma.”
Investigation underway
    Few details were being released as of Sunday night after the state fire marshal’s office was called in to lead the investigation into what happened. Charles City Fire Department spokesman Eric Whipple said Iowa Fire Marshal Jim Kenkel was in town on Saturday, joining Deputy Fire Marshal Bryan Shupe, who was on the scene within hours of the accident Friday.
    Charles City assistant fire chief Dave Boehmer said Sunday that the investigation was focused on 13 launch racks that were set up, 12 of which were loaded at the time of the accident, which were the apparent source of the malfunction.
    “Somehow when they fired everything went horizontal, vertical – it went everywhere,” he remarked.
    The fireworks show was being supplied by J&M Displays, based out of Yarmouth. Owner Jim Oetken said Sunday he had no comment until the investigation was completed, but anticipated issuing a news release as soon as today regarding the incident. The show was being overseen locally by Chris Garden of Charles City, who is employed by J&M and has been involved with the annual fireworks show here since 1984.
    “We’ve never had an accident,” remarked the veteran fireworks man and longtime former member of the Charles City Jaycees. The Jaycees for decades have put on the local fireworks show, but were really not involved much this year, according to Community Development Director Veronica Litterer.
    What is known for sure is that something went wrong at the start of the grand finale when volley after volley of fireworks shot into the air above the river in rapid-fire succession. As the initial volley was launched around 10:30 p.m., a bright flash enveloped the launch area in the parking lot of the former Theisen’s building at 90 S. Main St., followed by a brief, but brilliant multi-colored fireball that shot outwards to the west of the launch zone and towards the south end of the Main Street bridge. Hundreds of onlookers were seated throughout that area, many in lawn chairs or on blankets to watch the fireworks show.
    Chaos ensued after that, as people screamed and scrambled to escape the hot, shrapnel-filled blast or dove to cover and protect children. Spectators seated along the opposite riverbank and those in the immediate vicinity of the blast knew almost immediately that something bad had happened, but others watching the fireworks in other parts of the town had no idea until later when the news of the mishap spread. A planned “Ring of Fire” encore to the downtown finale, involving a dozen 12-inch shells fired around town, went off as planned. Those were each fired from remote sites, however, and did not involve the downtown launch site.
    The wail of emergency sirens, however, and the lack of cheering throughout the downtown area that always follows the popular fireworks show soon led to the conclusion that something had gone wrong.
Eyewitness accounts
    Eyewitnesses reported a large fireball shooting sideways from the launch area and into the crowd. Press Managing Editor Mark Wicks was flying above in an airplane with pilot Randy Vandeventer, shooting video of the fireworks show and saw the multi-colored fireball engulf much of the Main Street bridge for a brief instant (watch video at www.youtube.com). There appeared to be multiple blasts – the initial launch and then the fireworks exploding into the crowd.
    “It seemed like the fireworks just came right across main street,” reported Dan Hulbert, who along with his son Matt were sitting in the fourth row of the parking lot at the courthouse when the accident happened. “It just came right across and it started burning everybody, so we all ducked. We were four rows away and we still ducked.”
    “I had been taking pictures all night long, watching the fireworks and all of the sudden I see women carrying their children and running for cover and people laying on the ground and it was just crazy,” recalled Karen Smith, who was also in the courthouse parking lot “It was like nothing I've ever seen before.”
    Chris Cleveland was sitting with her husband Dave and three young children on the sidewalk at the corner of Main Street and Court Street, just northwest of where the fireworks were being shot off. Chris, who is five months pregnant, but was not injured, instinctively reacted when the fireball headed north towards the courthouse parking lot.
    “I just saw the fire blow across here. I jumped off the ground and grabbed the kid,” she said. “The other two boys were sitting right on the sidewalk. They just covered their face because the heat was so hot. We just grabbed chairs, grabbed everybody, tried to get as many people back out of the way as quick as we could.”
    Chris thought there were two explosions, however, she didn't remember much of the second one.
    Dave Cleveland thought that quite a bit of what flew into the crowd was exploded shell casings, but he was “not 100 percent sure.”
    “Most of it was just shrapnel that hit our area,” he said. “It was hard to tell. I'm just pulling kids out of the way and trying to get people to cover themselves so they didn't get burned."
    Dave added that while some in his party were hit, none had serious injuries.
    Matt Hulbert  spent the first few moments looking to locate several of his friends that were sitting near where the shells exploded.
    “I tried to call everybody that I could, but nobody's answering,” he recalled.
Smith and Watson both noted that up until that point, the show had been an enjoyable one.
    “It looked normal. It looked fine. It looked perfect, but we all thought it was the finale,” Watson said of the big blast. “We all thought it was the big part of the show, then it started coming at us.”
    “It looked like a normal show and then it was all chaos,” Smith said. “I thought it was the finale, but it wasn't.”
Multiple injuries
    Whipple said that the vast majority of the injuries sustained by those in the crowd were “minor — burns, abrasions and cuts.” However, he reported at least three people suffered more severe injuries and were among those transported by ambulance to Floyd County Medical Center.
    Additional ambulances from neighboring communities were called in to assist the local AMR Ambulance service. At least two medical helicopters – from Mason City and Rochester – were also dispatched to Charles  City from around the area, but Whipple said that was done by AMR as a precautionary measure immediately following the accident.
    “I’m not sure anyone was actually flown out, it was more of a precaution,” said Whipple.
    According to FCMC Director of Nursing Viva Boerschel Sunday, at least two people were transported elsewhere after receiving initial treatment Friday at Floyd County Medical Center.
    Whipple reported it is standard practice to station one fire engine and an ambulance on standby at the scene during the fireworks show.
    “As a result, the response was immediate,” he said.
    No names, ages or conditions of any of the victims was being released at this time.