Provo fire marshal reveals cause of ‘catastrophic’ Stadium of Fire firework explosion

PROVO, Utah (ABC4) — The Provo City fire marshal revealed the cause of the July 4th firework malfunction that led to dozens of injuries during the Stadium of Fire event last year.

Last Independence Day, fireworks shot into the crowd at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo injuring at least 27 audience members, six of which received treatment at a hospital. On Wednesday, Feb. 19, Fire Marshal Lynn Schofield revealed the cause of the “catastrophic” incident and suggestions to prevent this from ever happening again.

Schofield said out of the 36 firework tubes, 22 tubes went “where they weren’t supposed to go,” many spinning on the south stands and others launching into the crowd. He said four people were directly hit, and others were injured by shrapnel or experienced hearing loss from being in close proximity to the explosions.

After a full investigation, Schofield said he determined “there was no mishandling of these devices anywhere along the line,” rather the issue stemmed from an internal manufacturing fault in the fireworks that could not be seen from the outside.

Investigators used an X-ray to examine two of the tubes and determined something went wrong with the “whistle composition” causing the fireworks to explode sideways.

In the full report, the whistle composition is described as “a highly energetic pyrotechnic mixture” that’s pressed into the plastic tube. The fuel mixture provides thrust when it’s ignited, but if it becomes powdery or the whistle tube cracks “the flame front has a larger surface area to act upon and the remaining mixture will explode.”

Investigators found parts of the whistle composition on a couple of audience members, including one who was hospitalized after being struck in the head. The report said investigators discovered fragments of the whistle in the victim’s hair and “embedded in the victim’s forehead.”

While these devices have been used dozens of times at the Stadium of Fire event over the years, Schofield said this will no longer be the case, saying, “You will never see a whistle inside of the stadium as long as I’m the fire marshal.”

“No one intended for this to happen, no one is happy that this has happened, and we will learn from this,” Schofield said.

Schofield provided a list of suggestions to prevent future incidents, starting with better product labeling and increasing the safe distance between fireworks and people. The accepted radius is 140 feet wide, however, all but one victim in this incident were between 400 and 600 feet away. For that reason, he calls for the safety radius to be increased to 800 feet.

After interviewing the entire pyrotechnic crew in Utah and Colorado, he said there needs to be “more stringent and documented safety briefings” for everyone on the crew.

One of his final recommendations includes creating a clearinghouse where officials can report firework incidents and investigation results to minimize firework risks as a national database does not currently exist.

“Fireworks are wonderful … but they are, at the end of the day, still explosive devices,” Schofield concluded.

The full report can be found on Provo City’s website here.