Nine people were injured during Etna's Light-Up Night festivities when a fireworks display tipped over and fired into the crowd, officials said.
About 150 to 200 people were gathered near Bridge and Freeport streets for the holiday festivities about 8:45 p.m. when a set of the tubes containing the fireworks tipped over after it had been lit, sending six mortars into the crowd, said Etna Fire Chief Greg Porter.
A supervisor from New Castle-based Zambelli Fireworks Internationale was working with borough police to determine what caused the set of tubes to tip over.
"All of a sudden I heard this boom and thought it sounded really close, so I looked out the window and all I could see were people stampeding," said Susan Haas Colonello, 45, of Hampton, co-owner of the Burke and Haas Always in Bloom florist at the corner of Bridge and Freeport. "You could see them stooping, running -- and fireworks were going off right above their heads."
"Once (the fuse) was lit, there was nothing they could do," Porter said.
Nine people, including children, suffered first- and second-degree burns from the explosions or bumps, bruises and cuts in the resulting panic, Porter said. All were treated at the scene, and some said they would drive themselves to local hospitals for further treatment. None was hurt badly enough to require emergency transportation.
The florist shop became a triage center after the accident, Colonello said, with emergency personnel sorting the injured from the merely stunned.
Across Bridge Street from the lot where the fireworks were being set off, the crowd had gathered around a bonfire being tended by Kevin Burke, the other co-owner of the shop.
The first rounds started shooting at ground-level -- one toward the bonfire but falling short of it; another up Freeport Street. Other rounds shot off toward surrounding buildings about six to eight feet off the ground. Burke said police and firefighters in the crowd started directing people away from the area and preventing a worse stampede. The whole salvo took about a minute and a half, he said.
"As soon as it happened, the fire department was issuing orders to put all the injured inside the store," said Burke, 55, of Hampton. "Part of the reason things went so well for us is how well the police and fire department handled things."
A car and three buildings sustained minor property damage.
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