What was supposed to be a celebration quickly turned into an emergency situation after stray Fourth of July fireworks at a Utah sports stadium shot into the 45,000-person crowd, leaving several spectators injured.
Video shared to social media showed errant fireworks flying into the stands at LaVell Edwards Stadium at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, about 70 kilometres south of Salt Lake City.
The fireworks ascended into the air while multiple others hit different points in the crowd, sending up plumes of smoke. The fireworks exploded just after a line of F-22 jets flew over the stadium and were part of the Stadium of Fire show, organized by America’s Freedom Festival.
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Local authorities said multiple audience members were sent to hospital for medical attention, but the number that were hit by fireworks and the severity of their injuries is not known.
The crowd reacts after an errant firework exploded among attendees during Stadium of Fire held at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah, on Thursday, July 4, 2024. Several people were injured when fireworks misfired and struck members of the audience inside the football stadium, police said.
Isaac Hale / The Deseret News via AP
However, KSL-TV of Salt Lake City reported that one person was hit in the face and seriously injured.
The show was briefly paused while the injured people were removed from the stadium, but it resumed about 15 minutes later.
The organizer shared a statement to X, saying all pyrotechnics were “thoroughly checked” before the show and again after the incident.
“Safety is of the utmost importance to us,” the festival posted. “Our thoughts are with those who were impacted, and we are following up with them to make sure they are okay.”
Freedom Festival spokesperson Emory Cook told The Associated Press the company is “still trying to figure out what happened.”
The fireworks that malfunctioned inside the stadium were relatively small compared to the large pyrotechnics used during the show’s finale, Cook said. Those larger fireworks are kept outside the stadium, he said.
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