Airlift Northwest takes off with a patient headed to Harborview Medical Center. / Courtesy photo by West Thurston Regional Fire Authority
Updated at 1:39 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Three employees at a fireworks manufacturing company were injured this morning, one fatally, by an explosion and fire in Maytown, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies and firefighters were dispatched just before 10 o’clock to the incident at the 13000 block of Reeder Road; it happened at the front of an outbuilding belonging to the business, sheriff’s Lt. Greg Elwin said.
A witness who was doing work with a friend outside a house across the street said he heard about 15 commercial mortars. It went on for perhaps 20 seconds, 33-year-old Eathon Wesen of Napavine said.
“All the sudden there was like, boom, boom, boom,” Wesen said. “We looked over there, you could see fireworks going off like at ground level; well, about 10 to 12 feet in the air.”
A 74-year-old man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, but died enroute, according to the sheriff’s office. Two males were taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.
One of them, age 25, subsequently was flown to Harborview, according to Elwin. The third victim is a 52-year-old man with a burned hand, he said.
A spokesperson for West Thurston Regional Fire Authority said workers were inserting detonators into firework displays, to be used at a future event.
The fire chief was at a meeting at the station at the intersection of Maytown and Reeder roads, heard explosions and called 911 then responded, Lt. Lanette Dyer said.
Deputies have secured the scene and conducted an initial investigation, and are now waiting for investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm as well as the state Department of Labor and Industries according to Elwin.
Numerous employees are on the scene, he said. The company is Entertainment Fireworks, he said.
Elwin described the injuries as burns and concussion injuries.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter