'It shook the whole neighborhood:' Witness describes deadly firework explosion
PARK TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A woman is dead and multiple people are injured after a firework exploded in Ottawa County Monday.
It was a backyard display gone wrong in Park Township, according to Ottawa County Sheriff's Office.
“It shook the whole neighborhood. It shook my lawn chair – that’s how loud it was," Abby Terpstra, a neighbor, said.
- Previous coverage:Fatal firework explosion in Park Township leaves one dead, nine injured
Terpstra and her family were a block over, shooting off their own backyard fireworks when they knew something went terribly wrong and rushed over.
“We got here right after the fire truck got here and then we did see a lot of people laying on the ground, a lot of people scattered, crying, talking about it," Terpstra said.
Sheriff's deputies responded to the home on Main Street at 11 p.m. Monday.
When they arrived, they found 10 people injured, and took nine to area hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to critical.
First responders tried to save a Holland woman, but the 43-year-old died at the scene.
“We were doing fireworks and they were doing them. It was like a competition – so we started blowing up stuff and as time went by we heard a loud boom and everything got quiet. So we figured we’d walk down and check it out. And that’s when we saw everything," Shawn Manders, another neighbor, told News Channel 3. "They were doing CPR on a lady and there were a lot of people laying around. Fire trucks everywhere."
Manders stressed that safety is always top of mind for him when it comes to his backyard firework display.
“We only use the tubes they come with and we put cinder blocks around everything. So we just put blocks around them to ensure safety and make sure everybody’s away from it," he said.
A man and a woman were seen helping the woman, according to Manders.
"...All I heard was, like, she’s gone. They had a machine pumping her and as soon as they took that off they covered her up," Manders said.
Deputies were back on scene Tuesday, talking to neighbors and collecting information as to what led up to the horrific accident.