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An Anniversary They’d Rather Forget

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CHINESE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE ARE CELEBRATING their Lunar New Year this week, entering the Year of the Tiger.  In China the celebrations include extensive and large fireworks displays with everybody getting in on the act and setting them off all day and night for a week or more.

This year’s celebration marks the 1-year anniversary of the largest firework display Beijing has ever seen, last year’s burning of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.  The 44-story luxury hotel was just weeks away from its grand opening and was part of a brand-new complex of buildings occupied by the state-owned China Central Television agency (CCTV).

During the final night of New Year’s revelry (February 9 of last year), a group of CCTV employees who were managing the construction of the hotel started setting off some massive, and illegal, sky rockets and set the newly furnished hotel afire.  The flames spread immediately through the entire building, dominating the thousands of firework displays taking place in the city.

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By the next day, the entire building was nothing more than a crumbling, concrete shell.  Damages to the building which had taken eight years to design and then build, exceeded $800 million.

Firegeezer covered the fire with two postings on the 9th and 10th.  There are several fire videos in the stories and you can view them by clicking on these links:

http://firegeezer.com/2009/02/09/beijing-high-rise-fully-involved/

http://firegeezer.com/2009/02/10/massive-hotel-fire-started-by-fireworks/

Fireworks Up…..Fireworks Down

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PYROMANIACS WILL BE BACK SOON.  That’s the promise made yesterday by the owner of the quaintly-named fireworks shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Wednesday morning the shop burned down (see the Firegeezer video report HERE) in a spectacular blaze that featured sky rockets shooting out of the store at the firefighters as they worked successfully to keep it from spreading to neighboring buildings.

Gary Graham, 30, the owner started the business 10 years ago and built it on a lifelong dream and love of fireworks.  “What’s not to love? You have color and noise. What more could you ask for. Sky painting is what I call it,” Graham told a reporter.  He also said yesterday that he will begin to rebuild his business immediately.  But he thinks it will be in a different location where there is a building already available that he can move into.

WANE-TV Ch. 14 has this video interview with Graham and Fire Chief Pete Kelly who tells that arson has been ruled out as a cause:

Ready, Fire, Aim !!

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THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS KICK-OFF CELEBRATION IN THE PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, suburb of Etna finished a little earlier than planned Friday night after a mishap during the fireworks display.  The annual Light-Up Night brings thousands downtown for the festivities that culminates with a fireworks show.

But during the execution of this year’s display, one of the rocket platforms tipped over after the firing sequence had been started and the rockets started flying into the spectators instead of over them.  The display was being presented by noted fireworks firm Zambelli Internationale and was being launched from a vacant lot a couple of blocks away from the main activity center.  But still there was a group of about 150 to 200 people watching the launches from about 400 ft. away, according to Etna Fire Chief Greg Porter.  When the set of mortar tubes tipped over, the spectators began a mini-stampede to get out of the way of the hurtling rockets.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-News reports HERE:

“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.”

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.

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.”

3 UK Teens Arrested for Fire Death

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THREE TEENAGERS IN CORNWALL, ENGLAND, WERE ARRESTED TODAY in connection with the fire death of a 59-yr.-old woman this past Thursday night.  The woman was trapped inside her home with her 17-yr.-old son after somebody dropped a lit firework through her letter slot in the door.  Mary Fox pushed her son out of a 3rd-story window, saving his life, and then attempted to find her cat when she was overcome and then died.

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Mary Fox

Police suspected arson immediately when they found the firework remnants just inside the door.  Responding to local scuttlebut, they began searching Facebook pages where they found incrimnatory statements from the suspects.  “Some of the information has come via Facebook – indeed it is unusual these days for Facebook not to feature in a case such as this,” said one of the investigators.

After Mary’s son Raum leapt from the window, he ran to neighbors to report the fire and the FF’s arrived within just a few minutes.  But it was too late to save her.  Mary had eight other children, all of them adults in their 20’s and 30’s.

The Telegraph filed this video report:

The Times has MORE.

Another Fireworks Warehouse Lights Up

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IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE WE’VE REPORTED on a major fireworks ka-boom in Asia, but some folks in Pallipat, India, have got the firecracker season started.  Friday night a wholesale firecracker warehouse opened up for some retail activity in preparation for the annual Diwali celebration, a major Hindu festival where people traditionally set off firecrackers and fireworks.

The shop was packed with customers when something caused a firework to ignite and it rapidly set the entire shop ablaze.  Panic ensued and since there was only one exit, it was just moments before everybody was trapped inside the inferno.  So far, at least 32 people are known to be dead, many of them burned beyond recognition.

CNN News reports:

S. Radhakrishnan, a Tamil Nadu state police official, said three people were arrested in connection with the Friday evening fire, including the owner of the building and the owner of the fireworks store in the town of Pallipat, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Chennai.

Radhakrishnan said the fireworks store had been denied a government license to operate and was doing business illegally. The owner’s father died recently and the shop had been closed for a few days, he said. A rush of customers were at the store when it re-opened just before Diwali.

CNN also filed this video report: