Site of fatal fireworks explosion had not been inspected

OCRACOKE ISLAND, N.C.

The site where a truck full of fireworks exploded on July Fourth, killing four people, was not inspected, and a required permit was not obtained.

North Carolina does not require proof of training for operators of fireworks displays. However, the law does require that a local government body approve a fireworks-show application and that a fire inspector inspect the site and issue a permit, according to the state fire marshal's office.

Inspection typically happens before the fireworks arrive and while they are at the site. No inspection took place for this fireworks show.

The permit application for the July Fourth show, submitted July 2 by the Ocracoke Civic and Business Association, is not signed.

Jane Hodges, the county's deputy interim emergency services director, said she had discussed the permit last week with Deputy Fire Marshal Lindsey Mooney, who works on the Hyde County mainland.

"He said he wouldn't sign it because he did not have the time to go over there and inspect it," Hodges said.

Hyde County Manager Carl Classen said Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department Chief Albert O'Neal called him on July 3 and said he needed his signature on the permit.

Classen signed the bottom of a handwritten note that said, "By my signature below, I also approve the fireworks permit for the Ocracoke Civic and Business Association."

"It was my understanding that everything had been handled properly," Classen said. "We found out later it wasn't in order."

O'Neal said Friday that he had called Classen just to inform him that the permit needed a signature. When he received the faxed note signed by Classen, O'Neal said, he thought everything was in order with the permit.

"I don't have anything to do with the permitting," O'Neal said. "I just made the phone call to get it rolling."

Classen said that because of the late permit application, a recent vacancy in the county fire marshal's office, and the fact that the fireworks were being held at the same site by the same company and with the same people as in previous years, the inspection was not done and the permit was not issued.

"The staff tried to expedite it to accommodate the community," he said. "Because we are going through staff transition, they weren't picked up."

Classen conceded that the requirements of the county ordinance, as well as the state's, were not met.

"Whether the permit was issued properly or not, it appears the tragedy would have happened anyway, " he said. "Unfortunately, what they were doing inside that truck was not really the subject of the permit."

Terry Holland, 50, Lisa Simmons, 42, and Charles Kirkland Jr., 49, all of Goldsboro, and Mark Curtis Hill, 21, of Wayne County died of injuries after the truck exploded about 9 a.m. July 4.

Martez Holland, 27, of Goldsboro suffered burns to his face and arms but is expected to recover.

The rental truck loaded with fireworks was put on a ferry that traveled across Hatteras Inlet about 3:25 p.m. July 3, said Hal Scarborough, operations manager in Hatteras for the state Ferry Division. The ferry was dedicated for the Catawba, S.C.-based Melrose South Pyrotechnics crew, carrying two cars and six people in addition to the truck.

Scarborough said no regulation requires that special precautions be taken for transporting such explosives. "We don't do anything," he said.

Classen said he met with people from the state fire marshal's office this week. He said the county will work with them to comply with the state fire code. "We make no bones about it that it brought to light some problems in our permitting system that need to be fixed," he said.

David Warren was the county's fire marshal and emergency services director until he was fired late last month. Warren declined Friday to give the reason. It would have been his job, Warren said, to bring in a trained fire inspector to check that the truck would be parked a safe distance from buildings and anything flammable and to make sure that Melrose had the proper liability insurance.

He said the way the county handled the permit is "not the normal way to do things."

Warren, an Ocracoke firefighter, was at the site when the truck exploded. He suffered smoke inhalation and was admitted to The Outer Banks Hospital for a day.

Whether the inspection would have prevented the tragedy is impossible to guess, he said. But it could have made the workers more careful.

"Having an inspector around looking in and looking over their shoulder might have made them be more diligent," he said.

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com