(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The grand finale for the Fourth of July fireworks display in suburban Crystal Lake came a little too early Sunday night — and now the city’s fire rescue crews are searching the lake for undetonated mortars.
Crystal Lake Fire Chief Craig Snyder said it happened about seven minutes into the city’s Fourth of July fireworks display, which took place on the city’s eponymous beach. One of the shells detonated inside of the launch tube on top of the barge that was being operated by pyrotechnicians.
In an email to WBBM Newsradio, Snyder wrote that the malfunction severely affected the show’s ability to continue as planned and caused an immediate shutdown of the fireworks display.
There were no injuries, but the vendor American Fireworks Company did afterward need to have their pyrotechnicians launch fireworks intermittently in order to render the platform safe for docking on shore.
Several undetonated mortars also fell into the lake, the City of Crystal Lake says Fire Rescue will be out trying to retrieve them.
“We had one call from a citizen this morning that they had found one undetonated mortar on the shoreline, so we went through, spent a couple of hours searching the lake, and we did not find any other ordinances, any shrapnel or anything like that,” he said. “We feel pretty comfortable that the lake is clear.”
If they do wash up on shore, the city warned residents not to touch them and to instead call 911.
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