Ocracoke Island will hold first fireworks display seven years after July 4 explosion
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on January 12, 2016 1:46 PM
Nearly seven years since a fireworks explosion killed four Wayne County residents, Ocracoke Island will hold a July 4 fireworks display this summer, officials there announced.
Hyde County commissioners passed a resolution last week for an Independence Day fireworks display on July 3.
The tragedy made national news as one of the worst fireworks accidents in United States history when it happened in 2009.
On the morning of July 4 that year, members of a crew were preparing for that evening's show. As they unloaded a truck, a small explosion detonated approximately 700 pounds of fireworks.
Three men and a woman from Wayne County on that crew died. Another man survived but was badly burned.
Victims included Terry Holland, 49, Charles "Kirk" Kirkland Jr., 49, Lisa Simmons, 41, and Mark Hill, 21. They were all members of The Lord's Table Church in Goldsboro.
Holland was a longtime building supervisor at the church. Kirkland was son of one of the church's pastors, the Rev. Charles Kirkland. A fifth victim, Martez Holland, then 27, survived.
He was Terry Holland's nephew and at the time of the blast was further back in the truck and able to jump off. He was reportedly unconscious until paramedics arrived and was hospitalized for a time at the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill, where he was treated for third-degree burns over 20 percent of his body.
Although it was ruled an accident by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, it prompted Ocracoke officials to cancel fireworks displays in subsequent years and legislation has placed new restrictions on safety for pyrotechnic operations.
In November 2012 a civil trial in Wayne County Superior Court was stayed pending the appeal of a motion. Four separate claims for civil damages were filed against the fireworks company, Melrose South Pyrotechnics, by the families and estates of the victims.
Between September 2014 and mid-2015, each of the four civil cases were dismissed at separate times, court officials told the News-Argus Friday.
In December, the Ocracoke Occupancy Tax Board voted to recommend the commissioners designate $20,000 from the hotel, motel and vacation rental tax fund to allow fireworks on Ocracoke this year.