FIREWORKS EXPLOSION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 180, 31 July 1900, Page 3

FIREWORKS EXPLOSION.

FOURTH OF JULY SENSATION,

PHILADELPHIA, July 4.

A cartridge fired at close range by a small coloured boy into a large collection of fireworks of a highly explosive character to-day cost the lives of four children, caused the probable death of three others and severe burns and lacerations to twenty other persons, only two of whom were adults. The explosion occurred in front of the small shop of Antonio Mammerello, on Eighth-street, a most thickly populated section; The fireworks were on a. stand on the pavement, and consisted largely of giant firecrackers, torpedoes,.rockets and "chasers." A crowd «t children were clustered around the stand. A coloured boy, Isaiah Harris, was seen to point the pistol in the direction of the fireworks and fire. The force of the explosion which followed shattered the windows of many stores and residences in the vicinity, and the scene was covered by a dense smoke. "When this lifted the forms of more than a score of children were found lying on the street, burned and bleeding. The owner of the fireworks was arrested. Following the explosion the police confiscated about three waggon loads of fireworks In the neighbourhood.