An amateur fireworks explosion in New Jersey sent a 34-year-old man to the hospital and damaged property near a public party this weekend, according to police.
Friends and neighbors had gathered at Cooper Street Park in Manville on Saturday to celebrate the holiday weekend, NJ.com reported. However, the peaceful day was interrupted by a massive explosion in the park from what cops described as an “improvised fireworks device.”
“We just see the gore and blood everywhere. It looked like something out of a war movie,” witness Dan Cichon told WCBS.
Home security video obtained by the outlet showed an unknown man walking up to a device in the park, apparently lighting it on fire, then running away from the scene.
Cichon said the man approached him before the explosion.
“The moment he said he was setting it off is the only time I’ve ever seen him,” he told WCBS.
Police have not publicly identified any suspects. The injured man, identified as a Bridgewater resident, was airlifted to a local hospital due to torso injuries, Patch reported.
Additionally, two cars suffered serious damage in the explosion, and two homes were also damaged, according to WCBS.
“It was the biggest explosion to the point where my vision went gray and I couldn’t hear,” another witness, Kyra Runowicz, told WCBS.
The incident in Manville on Saturday afternoon was not the only fireworks mishap in New Jersey over the weekend. In Wharton State Forest, about 60 miles south of Manville, someone set off a fireworks device on Thursday night.
The explosion caused a fire in the state park, burning thousands of acres before firefighters managed to largely contain it on Saturday. No people or structures were harmed by that blaze.
