By Les Stewart
The Lebanon Daily News
PALMYRA, Pa. — Bryan Balshy decided to skip the Hershey fireworks Sunday night, instead choosing to watch the display at his hometown’s Fourth of July and 250th anniversary celebration.
He had no idea the fireworks would go spectacularly awry — or that he would be there to capture it on video.
“I thought the finale was coming up, and then that happened,” said Balshy, who shot the Palmyra fireworks accident on his cell phone and posted it on YouTube.
The 18-year-old and his girlfriend sat beside the press box at Buck Swank Stadium at the rear of Palmyra Area Middle School to watch the fireworks display when the fireworks fired into the crowd.
“I think one came up my direction maybe 20 feet away,” Balshy said. “It was chaos. Everybody pretty much put their heads down and yelled and screamed.”
Eleven people were injured by the accident that occurred at 10:37 p.m., state police at Reading said. They were taken to the Hershey Medical Center for treatment.
Of the injured, one was an employee of Schaefer Pyrotechnics of Ronks, Lancaster County, the company hired to put on the display for Palmyra, borough police said. Four of the injured spectators were children who ranged in age from 11 to 17 years.
The injured suffered burns, contusions and abrasions, said police, who did not release the names of any of the injured spectators.
All but two were released after treatment, Palmyra police said. An adult and a child were held overnight for observation. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening.
According to state police fire marshal Michael Yeity, stationed with Troop L in Reading, the accident happened when one of the fireworks did not ignite and discharge properly. It exploded inside a discharge tube, causing surrounding discharge tubes to fail. The fireworks inside those discharge tubes exploded, sending fireworks material into the crowd.
“We wondered if this was supposed to be happening,” Balshy said of the first firework that shot out to the side and went into the crowd. “Oh, my God,” he can be heard saying on his cell phone video at the time.
Balshy said he was too far away to see what had gone wrong with the display.
In addition to Balshy, James Kovach was on hand to watch the fireworks. He recalled how “surreal” and “scary” the malfunction was.
“It just seemed so surreal,” said the North Londonderry Township man, who watched to display with his wife, Jenny.
He said the couple had a bird’s-eye view of the accident. They were sitting south of the fireworks launch area.
“It was very scary,” he said.
To Kovach and his wife, it seemed that several skyrockets ignited simultaneously, either because they had exploded at the time of launch or they collided a few feet off the ground. The fireworks careened off to the east of the launch area, he explained.
“Things happened so quickly,” he said. “The thing that really startled us, we were sitting there outside the cordoned-off area, but still the wind carried that material south. As we walked home, it was remarkable the amount of debris on the cars out of the area cordoned off.”
Kovach and his wife live along Campbelltown Road, about three blocks from where the fireworks were sent off. When they got home, he said, they found ash and cardboard on their vehicles.
After the accident, Kovach saw people gathered in the rear parking lot of the Palmyra municipal building along South Railroad Street, he recalled. He saw one person lying in the lot.
Many people afterward seemed to be in shock, he added.
“It seems to me they had a lot of pyrotechnics packed in a very small area,” he said. “I think the fire companies did an excellent job maneuvering through the crowd so quickly.”
The aftermath of the fireworks accident was “eerily similar” to the 2004 tornado that hit Campbelltown, Kovach said. Despite the surreal scene, he could hear the sirens of emergency vehicles from out of town making their to way to the accident site.
“The crowd was hushed,” he said. “People in our area, they just stood there trying to make sense of it.”
University Hospital, Lawn and First Aid and Safety Patrol ambulances took the injured to the Hershey Medical Center.
Assisting Palmyra police were the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Pennsylvania State Police Hazardous Device and Explosives Unit; the state police fire marshal’s office; and Palmyra Citizens Fire Co.
A video of the incident was posted by audience member Bryan Balshy on the YouTube website.
Copyright 2010 Lebanon Daily News