PROVO, Utah, Feb. 19, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — Provo Fire Marshal Lynn Scofield has released the findings of an investigation into the July 4, 2024, malfunction of fireworks at the last Stadium of Fire event, at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
“The failure occurred in the whistle composition, resulting in an uncontrolled deflagration that broke the cake apart. The device continued to fire ordnance into the bowl area until the sequence was interrupted,” Scofield said in person and on a bulleted chart on a display monitor before reporters.
Asked by reporters to restate what happened in layman’s terms, Scofield feigned offense that anyone would question his use of the term “deflagration,” but then laughed and admitted he may have used some terms that were chosen for precision, but were not commonly known.
(Deflagration, by the way, is defined as a “subsonic combustion in which a premixed flame propagates through an explosive or a mixture of fuel and oxidizer. Deflagrations in high and low explosives or fuel–oxidizer mixtures may transition to a detonation depending upon confinement and other factors.”)
Basically, Scofield said that the malfunction occurred in a pyrotechnic device that was made with whistle tube fireworks, each designed in a tube with contents placed and packed in an order to let off a whistling sound before igniting explosives and launching the small firework skyward.
The device that malfunctioned contained 36 whistle tubes, securely attached to each other and designed to fire off in a sequence. The whole device was placed, then blocked in place with a sandbag, to keep the unit secure and aimed in the correct direction, upward.
The problem came when two individual tubes in the multi-tube device did not ignite as planned, possibly due to damage to the tubes or gaps in the packing material, which allowed the fire to ignite all explosive materials too quickly and all at once.
The jolt when the two defective or damaged tubes exploded also shook the multi-tube device, changing its firing angle to point into the stadium. So other whistle tubes that subsequently ignited as they were designed to were fired into the stadium, causing burning debris to go into the crowd.
Scofield said 27 people at the event reported being injured, with four being directly hit by fireworks. One woman, part of the event crew, was hit in the head with a firework, but the major impact was absorbed by her headset rather than to exposed skin.
Scofield also said his wife had volunteered to assist with fireworks at the event, so multiple fire marshals were added to the investigation to avoid any questions concerning a conflict of interest.
It is not clear if the damage to the two tubes was an issue of a factory mistake or subsequent damage to the device, Scofield said, but no damage was visible during multiple local examinations of the devices. The company, when contacted, had told Scofield that specific firework would no longer be sold, he said.
Scofield said area fireworks shows had used whistle pipe devices without problems many times in the past, but he would never approve them again.
He also said he had requested safety regulation organizations to keep better track of accidents and come up with stricter guidelines regarding setup distances from crowds, and transparency about firework contents and potential design flaws.
Asked if it is safe to go to fireworks shows, Scofield said “unequivocally, yes.
“We do our very best with each of these devices and the entire setup for the Stadium of Fire. Each individual device was inspected multiple times, both by the pyro technician crew, which we don’t have a part of, but also by my office on the day of the show itself.
“The challenge is, you’re dealing with explosive devices. If the whistle breaks down, you can’t see that from the outside.
“We do our very best … We will do everything we can to make sure that these events are as safe as we possibly can.”
