JULY 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 7

July 4th War-Stories And

July 4th War-Stories And suddenly the sky was filled with fireworks. I hadn’t been assigned to patrol very long and in fact it was just before the July 4th weekend that my FTO cut me loose and I was on my own. The 4th was on a Saturday, and it would be the first Saturday night I would be riding by myself. I was assigned to the 11pm-7am shift, so my girlfriend and I went down to Memorial Park to watch the fireworks and as soon as it was over, I headed over to the station, picked up my car and went right to work. And like any Saturday night, the calls just poured in. The calls were non-stop until like 4am and then it was just dead. I guess everyone had enough partying and decided to call it a day. About 4:30am, my FTO had me got to the back channel and said to meet him on the west side of the district. When I pulled up next to him, he said to follow him to another location. After 5 minutes of following him, I honestly had no damn idea where we were. Suddenly he turns right into what I could swear was a ditch. Come to find out, it was a dirt road that crossed a deep ditch and just on the other side was a thick row of weeds and bushes, but damn if we didn’t just drive right through them like batman entering the bat cave. One the other side was an open clearing in the woods and about six or seven other units all parked in a semi-circle. As I got out of my car, I glanced over and saw another rookie I knew that had just hit the streets as well. I walked over and saw pizza boxes and beer all scattered over the truck of another patrol car and helped myself to the pizza. “Hey bud what’s up? What’s with the beer?” He said he was thinking the same thing but hey we were rookies and far be it from us to say shit about anything. As we were catching up on what happened since the academy, one of the older officers walked over and said, “Hey you two come on, you’re going to miss the show.” We both looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and followed him. Everyone was sitting on the backs of cars looking towards the south. I thought, what the hell are they looking at? Suddenly the sky was filled with bottle rockets and fireworks by the hundreds. Like a fireworks finale only it just didn’t stop. This went on for like 25 minutes until you hear fire trucks in the background. Then I heard, “Well guys, I guess the show is about over, we’d better go help the FD.” Everyone got back into their cars and just like that the party was over. The rookie and I looked at each other and both said “what the fuck” at the same time while laughing our butts off. We jump in our cars, turned on lights and sirens and followed the pack. Sure enough, just a couple miles away the fire department was on the scene of a fire ---wait for it---of yes, a FIREWORKS stand. Go figure. Now I wonder how all these cops knew that THIS fireworks stand would suddenly catch fire thus creating a fireworks show in the middle of the night. I didn’t want to know. I just got out and directed traffic and never talked about it again…until now. LOL The night all hell broke loose. I hated working July 4th. People either like fireworks or they hate them and those that hate them call every five minutes to report someone shooting fireworks in their neighborhood. Seriously, get a damn life. And our town is like most others, in that our city puts on a professional fireworks show down by our city lake. They launch a barge from the park and anchor it in the middle of the lake. Thousands of families pack every inch of the park to watch the 30-minute show. It’s about the most exciting thing that every happens here in Smallville USA. Our department is small too at only 30 officers and the fire department is all volunteer. It’s just a sleepy little town stuck in the middle of nowhere. The closest town is over 30 miles away and the big city is almost an hour away. But my wife wanted to return to the area her family was from, so I retired from Kansas City PD and moved the family here. For the most part it was pretty damn quiet and after working in the big city for 20 years, I was ready for some peace and quiet. The 4th of July celebration is a daylong event here. The park is packed all day with concerts, food, games for the kids, carnival rides. You know typical country fair stuff. So, by 9pm, there isn’t a lot of traffic coming into the park, most of the town is already here. The fireworks were scheduled to begin at 9:20pm. I remember looking down at my watch and it was 9:19 and I thought, OK this is about to start and about that time the first rocket launched and burst into a huge star about the crowd. Everyone cheered and clapped and waited for the next one. But for about 2 minutes nothing happened. At 9:25 another rocket went up and suddenly you could hear what sounded like a freight train coming from the lake. At 9:26 the entire sky light up with thousands of rockets going off in every direction. They weren’t going straight up; they were literally going in every direction. Sideways, left, right, straight towards the park. Something obviously had gone wrong on the barge and the entire damn thing blew up. Suddenly I was back in Iraq and taking fire. It was suddenly a PTSD flashback. I looked around and people were getting hit with mortar fire all around me and small fires were starting in the grassy areas of the park. People were running in all directions, and it was just pure chaos. All I could do was help the injured and get people running the right direction - away from the lake. The explosions only lasted about 4 minutes, but it seemed like an hour. When it finally stopped, over 200 people were injured and laying all over the park. I had only seen something like this once before in my life and it was after a IED went off back in Iraq. I was on the radio trying to get EMS directed to the severely injured, but it was clear we were undermanned and unprepared for the sheer number of injured we had. Our chief put out an all channel 911 assist as did the fire department and we have departments from every neighboring towns headed our way. Over 100 ambulances eventually responded and had to transport victims to hospitals all over the state. The national guard arrived with Blackhawks and medics and set up triage tents to treat the wounded until they could be transported. The last patient was airlifted at 3am and by 6am the park was empty except for first responders. As daylight broke and you could see what was left of the barge. Just a smoldering hulk of metal partially sunk in the middle of the lake. Over 500 people were injured that day and only by God’s good graces no one was killed. They determined that static electricity had caused the spark that shorted out the control board on the barge causing the entire display to be launched at the same time. The explosion caused the barge to rock thus sending the rockets in all directions. So much for us being a sleepy little town. The next day we were worldwide news. Have a unique story you’d like to share with the BLUES readers? Send it to: bluespdmag@ gmail.com. Please change all the names to protect the innocent and to avoid prosecution in the event that the statute of limitations hasn’t expired. 42 The 42 BLUES The BLUES POLICE POLICE MAGAZINE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 43