The Whakatane Kiwanis Club show goes disastrously wrong as most of the fireworks explode at once. Photo / Robert Hepple
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The organisers of a fireworks display that went badly wrong say Saturday night's event will not be their last.
The show, an annual charity fundraiser run by the Whakatane Kiwanis Club, was meant to last 40 minutes.
But it was over within 40 seconds as about $10,000 of fireworks exploded
at once, injuring two people, sparking fires, and sending organisers and rural firefighters scampering for cover.
This week, the Department of Labour will start an investigation into the incident.
Whakatane District Council principal rural fire officer Bill Wycherley said the fireworks were possibly accidentally set off by a splutter from a gas torch which was used to start the show.
"The guy was using something like a gas torch. It had a cough and sent this shower of sparks out.
"We didn't sort of think anything of it at the time, but next thing the fireworks that were open and ready to be loaded into the launch holders started going off.
"Then perpetual motion started and we were, like, 'Geez'."
Mr Wycherley said he dived behind the wheel of his four-wheel-drive ute as the fireworks began to explode around him.
He is amazed that no one in the set-up crew was seriously injured during the series of blasts although two people were taken to Whakatane Hospital as a precautionary measure.
"If you can imagine those huge booms in the sky happening at ground level, it was absolutely frightening.
"It was complete daylight. There was stuff coming underneath the ute, over the top and all around me. It was just unbelievable."
Mr Wycherley said several small fires broke out nearby but were quickly contained by the rural fire service and two teams of Whakatane firefighters.
Kiwanis Club secretary Leigh Baker said the crowd of about 1000 people probably had a good night.
"Everything just went 'bang, bang bang' and from a crowd's point of view it was probably a pretty dazzling display," he said.
"But as it went on, people might have started thinking, 'Ah, this may not be quite right'."
Mr Baker did not think the incident, the first serious mishap in the event's 27 years, would have any negative bearing on future Kiwanis fireworks displays.
