Municipal fireworks are a Fourth of July tradition in many Wyoming towns, but not in Torrington anymore.
The eastern Wyoming town in Goshen County has canceled its municipal fireworks show for the past five years after a terrifying accidental explosion in 2020 when firefighters were preparing that year’s display.
The explosion happened at about 6 p.m. on July 1, 2020, in the South Hall building in Pioneer Park. It was heard and felt all over town.
Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt in the blast.
The experience was terrible enough, however, to make the Torrington Volunteer Fire Department decide against putting on any more displays.
“It definitely blew the roof off that building,” Fire Chief Luis Correa told Cowboy State Daily.
Torrington resident Ed Schreiner said he remembers the incident.
The blast was powerful enough to shake his house from about 2 miles away, he said.
“They kept the area surrounded by police and tape for days after,” Schreiner added.
‘Everybody In Town Heard It’
Police Chief Matt Johnson recalls rushing over to the scene that evening, fearing the worst but discovering that there had been no deaths or serious injuries.
The only injury at the scene was a firefighter suffering a cut to one of his hands as he was scrambling out of one of the garage-style doors on the building.
But the moment of the explosion was baffling and frightening, Johnson said.
“I think everybody in town heard it,” he said. “I just really wondered what had happened.”
‘Like A Thud’
The firefighters’ previous experience with fireworks likely saved their lives.
For years, the fire department had prepared the municipal displays.
The process was straightforward. With the fireworks stacked in one bay of the building, the trailer from which there would be shot was backed into the other bay.
Then the firefighters, wearing full gear, would wire the fireworks to a control board with buttons to ignite them.
At some point during the process, something went horribly wrong, Correa said.
“There was some sort of mishap” and an electrical charge was sent to one of the firework fuses, he said.
“There’s a very distinct sound when fireworks are lit,” he said. “It’s like a ‘thud,’ it’s almost like the firework mortar shell is sinking down into the tube.”
The firefighters knew exactly what that sound meant and immediately ran out of the building, he said.
Then it was as if the gates of Hell had opened.
“I think we had around 300 fireworks in that building,” Correa said.
He’s said he’s not sure the exact cause of the accidental ignition was ever determined.
Other crews responded to the scene, put out the fire and soaked the place down. Later, a bomb squad was called in to deal with a few remaining unexploded fireworks shells.
‘The Call That Scared Me The Most’
Correa, who wasn’t chief at the time, was normally on the fireworks preparation crew.
But that evening, he and his wife had gone to another town to celebrate their anniversary.
They were on their drive home just passing a Holiday Inn on the edge of town roughly opposite of Pioneer Park when the blast went off.
“We heard the explosion and saw the smoke,” he said.
Then the call came over his pager.
“I’ve been on a lot of calls. That one is, by far, the call that scared me the most,” he said.
He was beyond relieved to arrive at the scene and find his fellow firefighters almost entirely unharmed.
It was a sobering experience, with lingering effects.
Not long afterward, the firefighters took a vote on whether to ever do another fireworks display. The vote was overwhelmingly against it.
Later, a private fireworks company offered to do Torrington’s displays.
But that company would have charged a steep price and would have still expected firefighters to pre-wire the explosives.
Again, the firefighters flatly refused.
“We haven’t had a city display since then,” Correa said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
