5 hurt in PawSox fireworks blast

The Pawtucket Red Sox canceled plans for Fourth of July fireworks at McCoy Stadium last night as a precaution after an explosion during Sunday's display slightly injured five employees of a pyrotechnic company.

The five workers, employees of New Hampshire-based Telstar Display Fireworks, suffered minor burns and cuts, mainly on their legs, as they fled the explosion about 20 minutes into a planned 40-minute fireworks display, according to a Telstar co-owner. All five were treated at local hospitals and released within two hours of the 11:15 p.m. accident, said the company's co-owner, Lionel Bergeron, adding that some of the injured workers returned to work that night.

But Pawtucket fire and public safety officials urged the PawSox to cancel last night's fireworks until investigators could better understand why a fireworks shell exploded so close to the ground, setting off other fireworks prematurely.

Pawtucket's ''public safety director, along with the fire chief and the police chief, thought it was best that we all sit back and analyze what happened before we rush into another show," said PawSox president Mike Tamburro. ''There are certainly plenty of other nights for fireworks."

However, Tamburro stressed that he remains confident in Telstar's safety record, noting that the 26-year-old company has staged dozens of fireworks displays for the team over the last decade without injuries. ''This really might be a case of just a freak accident," he said. ''Sometimes it's freak accidents that cause the most problems."

Telstar's Bergeron said the accident occurred midway through the show when a shell exploded either on takeoff or as it was falling back to the ground, sending a cascade of hot embers into fireworks that were supposed to be launched during the grand finale. Firefighters said one crate of fireworks tipped over, sending fireworks shooting toward a group of employees near the launch site, in a parking lot behind the right field wall.

A witness told the Providence Journal that the misfired fireworks hit the outfield billboards and landed on the floor of the bleachers, which for safety reasons are off limits during fireworks shows. City safety rules require that no members of the public be within 300 feet of the fireworks. Partly as a result of that, no one other than the Telstar employees was injured.

''All the precautions that we take worked really well and kept the fans out of harm's way. The fans weren't even close to danger," said Tamburro, who said the team hosts about six fireworks displays per year, all staged by Telstar. In fact, Tamburro said, many of the 10,000 fans in attendance didn't even realize there was an accident: ''If you're in the stands, the finale was phenomenal. The place let up a loud cheer and people quietly exited the building."