PITTSTON - The grand finale of a fireworks display sponsored by Pittston and West Pittston in the Riverfront Park area went awry Sunday, sending possibly 50 people to area hospitals and igniting a small fire at Cooper's on the Waterfront.
"Fireworks went errant during the grand finale and went into the crowd of people," said Mike Lombardo, who is with the Pittston ambulance. "About 50 people were injured, five to ten pretty severe. There were a tremendous amount of walking wounded."
A chaotic scene erupted as the crowd tried to dash to safety.
Maria Noone of Pittston was watching the fireworks with her son.
"We were sitting on the steps that lead down to the fireworks, and it was like a rolling thunder of fireworks heading our way. Everyone started to run. People were being hit (by fireworks) within 12 feet of us. If we didn't move out of the way, we'd be in an ambulance, too."
"With about 20 or 25 percent of the finale left, that piece exploded irregularly," said Michael Lombardo, mayor of Pittston, uncle of the Pittston ambulance crew member. "It exploded at ground level and went left and right at about 10:30."
Some of the injured were reportedly flown by medical helicopter that was staged out of the Pittston Area High School.
The mayor said the fireworks were located in an area 15 to 18 feet below ground level of Cooper's.
"One of the pieces ricocheted and landed in the shrubs at Cooper's," Mayor Lombardo said.
The mayor said the most serious injuries were suffered by two or three people from the pyrotechnics company. He said two of the three were classified as serious. One suffered burns and smoke inhalation and another suffered a "shrapnel gash to the upper left leg."
According to Mayor Lombardo, all three were taken to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township.
Conrad Schintz, vice president of operations for Geisinger Wyoming Valley, said the hospital's disaster plan had been initiated and seven victims had been transported there.
Six were burn victims and one suffered a blunt injury to the leg and was transported to an operating room.
"With any type of disaster, information comes in slowly. We gear up for the worst and hope for the best," Schintz said.
The mayor added that about 10 to 12 people suffered minor injuries resulting from "people running, tripping and falling" and percussion injuries.
Others injured were transported to Scranton's Community Medical Center, according to the hospital.
"When I saw it happen, I knew something was wrong and ran over," said William Goldsworthy, mayor of West Pittston.
"There were a lot of very minor injuries."
Officials planned to quarantine all the pieces of fireworks shells that were scattered about the Riverfront Park area, and the state police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were arriving to investigate.
Mayor Lombardo said the fireworks display was reportedly staged by Schaefer Pyrotechnics, of Stroudsburg.
County EMA as well as ATF were on the scene. Mayor Lombardo said there were concerns about unexploded ordnance. "We're not sure, but we're assessing the situation."
"We were in the middle of the bridge, and right when the grand finale started everything went off," said Mario Palmieri, 18, of Exeter. "Something went wrong. You could tell something went wrong."
"They were going off at a 20-degree angle. The fireworks just went off on the ground," said Tim Fenner, 19, Exeter, who watched the event from the middle of Water Street Bridge.
Firefighters remained on the roof of Coopers at 10:45 p.m. Emergency vehicles remained at the CVS pharmacy at Kennedy Boulevard and the Salvation Army Emergency Response Unit appeared on the scene.
Mark Warke of Trucksville was seeking treatment at Geisinger. Warke's sister was seeking treatment for a sprained knee.
"We were standing on a metal bridge about 100 yards away. At first they were going in the air, then all of a sudden they didn't fire right; they were going backward," Warke said.
Warke's sister, whom he did not name, was injured while attempting to reach a pay phone to inform their father they were both safe.
No further information was available at press time.
