JULY 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 7

July 4th War-Stories
And suddenly the sky was
filled with fireworks.
I hadn’t been assigned
to patrol very long and in fact
it was just before the July 4th
weekend that my FTO cut me
loose and I was on my own. The
4th was on a Saturday, and it
would be the first Saturday night
I would be riding by myself. I
was assigned to the 11pm-7am
shift, so my girlfriend and I
went down to Memorial Park to
watch the fireworks and as soon
as it was over, I headed over to
the station, picked up my car
and went right to work. And like
any Saturday night, the calls
just poured in.
The calls were non-stop until
like 4am and then it was just
dead. I guess everyone had
enough partying and decided
to call it a day. About 4:30am,
my FTO had me got to the back
channel and said to meet him
on the west side of the district.
When I pulled up next to him,
he said to follow him to another
location. After 5 minutes of
following him, I honestly had no
damn idea where we were. Suddenly
he turns right into what I
could swear was a ditch. Come
to find out, it was a dirt road that
crossed a deep ditch and just on
the other side was a thick row of
weeds and bushes, but damn if
we didn’t just drive right through
them like batman entering the
bat cave. One the other side was
an open clearing in the woods
and about six or seven other
units all parked in a semi-circle.
As I got out of my car, I glanced
over and saw another rookie I
knew that had just hit the streets
as well. I walked over and saw
pizza boxes and beer all scattered
over the truck of another
patrol car and helped myself to
the pizza. “Hey bud what’s up?
What’s with the beer?” He said
he was thinking the same thing
but hey we were rookies and far
be it from us to say shit about
anything. As we were catching
up on what happened since the
academy, one of the older officers
walked over and said, “Hey
you two come on, you’re going to
miss the show.” We both looked
at each other, shrugged our
shoulders and followed him. Everyone
was sitting on the backs
of cars looking towards the
south. I thought, what the hell
are they looking at? Suddenly the
sky was filled with bottle rockets
and fireworks by the hundreds.
Like a fireworks finale only it just
didn’t stop. This went on for like
25 minutes until you hear fire
trucks in the background. Then
I heard, “Well guys, I guess the
show is about over, we’d better
go help the FD.”
Everyone got back into their
cars and just like that the party
was over. The rookie and I
looked at each other and both
said “what the fuck” at the same
time while laughing our butts
off. We jump in our cars, turned
on lights and sirens and followed
the pack. Sure enough,
just a couple miles away the fire
department was on the scene
of a fire ---wait for it---of yes,
a FIREWORKS stand. Go figure.
Now I wonder how all these cops
knew that THIS fireworks stand
would suddenly catch fire thus
creating a fireworks show in the
middle of the night. I didn’t want
to know. I just got out and directed
traffic and never talked
about it again…until now. LOL
The night all hell broke
loose.
I hated working July 4th. People
either like fireworks or they
hate them and those that hate
them call every five minutes to
report someone shooting fireworks
in their neighborhood. Seriously,
get a damn life. And our
town is like most others, in that
our city puts on a professional
fireworks show down by our city
lake. They launch a barge from
the park and anchor it in the
middle of the lake. Thousands
of families pack every inch of
the park to watch the 30-minute
show. It’s about the most exciting
thing that every happens here in
Smallville USA.
Our department is small too
at only 30 officers and the fire
department is all volunteer. It’s
just a sleepy little town stuck in
the middle of nowhere. The closest
town is over 30 miles away
and the big city is almost an
hour away. But my wife wanted
to return to the area her family
was from, so I retired from
Kansas City PD and moved the
family here. For the most part
it was pretty damn quiet and
after working in the big city for
20 years, I was ready for some
peace and quiet.
The 4th of July celebration is
a daylong event here. The park
is packed all day with concerts,
food, games for the kids, carnival
rides. You know typical
country fair stuff. So, by 9pm,
there isn’t a lot of traffic coming
into the park, most of the town is
already here. The fireworks were
scheduled to begin at 9:20pm.
I remember looking down at
my watch and it was 9:19 and I
thought, OK this is about to start
and about that time the first
rocket launched and burst into
a huge star about the crowd.
Everyone cheered and clapped
and waited for the next one.
But for about 2 minutes nothing
happened. At 9:25 another rocket
went up and suddenly you could
hear what sounded like a freight
train coming from the lake.
At 9:26 the entire sky light up
with thousands of rockets going
off in every direction. They
weren’t going straight up; they
were literally going in every
direction. Sideways, left, right,
straight towards the park. Something
obviously had gone wrong
on the barge and the entire damn
thing blew up. Suddenly I was
back in Iraq and taking fire. It
was suddenly a PTSD flashback.
I looked around and people were
getting hit with mortar fire all
around me and small fires were
starting in the grassy areas of
the park. People were running
in all directions, and it was just
pure chaos. All I could do was
help the injured and get people
running the right direction
- away from the lake. The explosions
only lasted about 4 minutes,
but it seemed like an hour.
When it finally stopped, over 200
people were injured and laying
all over the park. I had only seen
something like this once before
in my life and it was after a IED
went off back in Iraq.
I was on the radio trying to
get EMS directed to the severely
injured, but it was clear we were
undermanned and unprepared
for the sheer number of injured
we had. Our chief put out an
all channel 911 assist as did the
fire department and we have
departments from every neighboring
towns headed our way.
Over 100 ambulances eventually
responded and had to transport
victims to hospitals all over the
state. The national guard arrived
with Blackhawks and medics
and set up triage tents to treat
the wounded until they could be
transported. The last patient was
airlifted at 3am and by 6am the
park was empty except for first
responders. As daylight broke
and you could see what was left
of the barge. Just a smoldering
hulk of metal partially sunk in
the middle of the lake.
Over 500 people were injured
that day and only by God’s good
graces no one was killed. They
determined that static electricity
had caused the spark that shorted
out the control board on the
barge causing the entire display
to be launched at the same time.
The explosion caused the barge
to rock thus sending the rockets
in all directions. So much for us
being a sleepy little town. The
next day we were worldwide
news.
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BLUES readers?
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