Investigation to probe death of Pa. fireworks employee

A launching device that exploded on the ground is the focus of federal, state, and local investigators in the Saturday night death of a fireworks employee at a July Fourth celebration in Quakertown.

David A. Walker, 19, of Pulaski, Pa., died of neck trauma, an autopsy determined yesterday. Bucks County Coroner Joseph Campbell has ruled the death an accident.

Walker, an employee of Zambelli Fireworks Internationale of New Castle, Pa., was hit by pieces of a sand-filled wooden launching container that was shattered by the ground explosion, State Police Sgt. Steven Stinsky said.

"It appears that there was a malfunction. They can't tell whether it was with the tube itself that shoots the projectile, or whether it was the charge at the bottom of the tube that propels the device," Stinsky said.

Bucks County officials said Walker suffered blunt-force trauma in the 9:30 p.m. explosion and was pronounced dead at St. Luke's Hospital-Quakertown. Fire Marshal Nicholas E. Rafferty attributed the death to a single-shell malfunction.

Among the agencies investigating are state police, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and state and county fire officials.

A statement issued yesterday by Doug Taylor, Zambelli president and chief executive officer, expressed "great sadness and concern" over Walker's death.

Taylor said Zambelli would cooperate with investigators "to reach an accurate conclusion to this tragic incident and to ensure that it does not happen again. We have not received reports from any of the authorities at this time and therefore cannot comment further on the specifics of the accident."

No other employees or spectators were injured.

An amateur video posted on YouTube by a spectator shows an apparent explosion shooting a blast of light sideways during the fireworks finale at Memorial Park.

Fireworks typically are launched by black-powder lift-charges that propel them from metal or plastic tubes anchored in sand. The firework is supposed to fit snugly into the tube; misfires can be caused if a loose fit allows pressure from the lift charge to escape.

Zambelli, featured in a 2002 PBS documentary about fireworks, is one of the nation's oldest and largest fireworks companies.

OSHA records contain at least one other instance of a Zambelli worker killed in an explosion: a 2002 incident in Newburgh, N.Y. The worker was moving the fireworks from a truck to a bunker when they exploded.

Walker's death was one of five on an unusually deadly Fourth of July for pyrotechnics workers. Four others were killed in a single blast while unloading fireworks on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina's Outer Banks.