2 hurt in fireworks explosion on Cape Cod, witness says "I thought a plane hit the house"
Two people were hurt in a fireworks explosion on Cape Cod Wednesday afternoon.
It happened just after 4:30 p.m. at the New Seabury Country Club in Mashpee, Massachusetts, hours before a scheduled fireworks show there.
Video sent to WBZ-TV from a witness showed a huge cloud of smoke going straight up into the sky.
"Am I seeing this? Is this for real? And then the next thought was really just to pray," said witness Tabitha Carty.
Some said they heard loud bangs. Doug Hajjar, who lives by the golf course, said he ran outside and saw flames coming from a truck holding all the fireworks for the show.
"The house was literally shaking"
"I thought a plane hit the house because the house was literally shaking," said Hajjar. "There were another two or three booms after that, louder than the first one, so you could see that all the fireworks were gone. The flames were still 10, 15 feet high."
"We thought they were doing, like, a practice round and then we saw how low it was and then there was so much smoke and then we get nervous, like maybe it was going to light the house on fire," said Ally Hajjar.
The Mashpee fire department said one person ended up with serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was airlifted to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. A second person was taken to Falmouth Hospital with minor injuries. One of the victims was a worker for the fireworks company.
"I find them to be magical, the flip side's that they're so dangerous," said Carty.
Six other people were evaluated at the scene but refused to be taken to the hospital.
The country club canceled the fireworks show but said a barbecue and kids' activities would still go on.
"This company itself does all our shows, we have three every year in Mashpee, never had a problem, so I'd just let the investigation go through and find out," said Mashpee Fire Chief Joseph Peltier.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation. Peltier said the remaining fireworks will be detonated.