Let’s remember when 18 people were injured during a fireworks show in Seattle Center, on this day in 1972 (July 4)
It’s all fun and games until 18 people get hurt.
On July 4, 1972, an errant skyrocket veers off course during a Fourth of July fireworks show at the Seattle Center. The five-inch shell lands in a large crowd just north of the International Fountain and explodes into multiple balls of fire, injuring 18 people. It’s the last Fourth of July fireworks show at the Center.
Tell me more.
The show went off without a hitch for its first 20 minutes, and by 10:40 p.m. there were only a few rockets left to shoot. Then a five-inch aerial shell, one of the largest used in the show, was shot into the air. It was designed to explode at 700 to 800 feet. But the shell’s time-delay fuse failed, and it did not explode as planned. Instead the rocket abruptly changed direction (one witness said it appeared to “break off” as it went up), veered west, and slammed into the crowd about 20 feet north of the International Fountain. On impact it exploded into brilliant balls of silver, red, and green. A witness, identified by the Times as Mrs. Daniel Ray of Bellevue, described what happened:
“It went straight up and we watched its tracer, but nothing happened, then, anyway. Then we heard a thud and those blobs of fire about the size of golf balls started shooting around. More of them came our way but some seemed to drift to the other side of where it landed — it was only about 10 or 12 feet from us. … I saw a man standing nearby and his shirt was on fire. He was trying to beat out the flames … . I hurried over and took the blanket the man had been sitting on and smothered the fire and then helped him out of his shirt with others who came to help. Most surprising was how calm everyone seemed to stay and how they went to the aid of those who got burned. There was one lady whose whole dress had caught fire and they had to strip it off. Most of all we were glad it wasn’t any worse for us. It very well could have been.”
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