4 July 2023
PARK TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — One person is dead and nine more were injured after an incident involving a firework explosion Monday night in Park Township.
The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office says the incident happened shortly after 11 p.m. Monday night at a home on Main Street near N. 160th Avenue. Nine other people were taken to nearby hospitals with “injuries ranging from minor to critical.”
A 10th person, identified as a 43-year-old woman from Holland, was unresponsive when crews arrived. First responders started “life-saving measures”, but she was eventually pronounced dead at the scene.
Several nearby homes and vehicles were also damaged. Photos taken by Nexstar’s WOOD show piles of spent fireworks outside the home, as well as shreds of paper and plastic in the roadway. A window on a nearby car was also shattered.
The exact cause of the incident remains under investigation.
Aerial fireworks are legal on certain days in Michigan.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that in 2022, 10,200 people were treated at emergency rooms and 11 deaths were blamed on fireworks. About three-quarters of injuries happened in the period around the Fourth of July.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.