At least three people were injured — one seriously — when fireworks accidentally detonated in a crowd during Sitka’s Independence Day celebration.
The incident occurred shortly before midnight on July 3, during the finale of the half-hour show.
Sitka Fire Chief Dave Miller was standing by with a fire engine and ambulance, about 150 feet away from the fireworks area on the old boat ramp near the UAS Sitka building. A crowd of onlookers was gathered about one hundred yards down the beach in a grassy area by the Mt. Edgecumbe ballfield.
Over the course of the finale, medics were first summoned by a 9-1-1 call to attend a man who had suffered an eye injury by the ballfield. Next, they were flagged over to the beach.
“Right there in the grass there were two people down, and they appeared to be to have been struck by fireworks in some way,” Miller said.