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St. Louis Post Dispatch Newspaper Saturday 5 July 1997 By Bill Bryan And Jenny PriceNOTE: This article was posted twice by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch with a considerable amount of different information in each version. Both versions are posted on this page.
When the mortar shell blew up just a few feet above the barge, igniting the other fireworks, many in Alton mistook it for the show's finale.
"Fire in the hole!"
Those frantic words from Ralph Kenneth Duty were probably his last, but they probably saved the lives of two of his co-workers at Thursday night's fireworks catastrophe on the Alton riverfront.
Duty and four other men were on a barge 120 yards off the riverfront at 9:37 p.m. when a mortar shell that should have risen 100 feet instead fizzled after only six feet. It fell on the barge, igniting fireworks that were to be used as part of the show's finale.
At first, spectators were awestruck by the bright explosion.
"People were cheering," said Peggy Tavernier of Alton.
Then fireworks began cascading into the river, and a dark brown cloud formed over the barge. The riverfront crowd went silent.
Later, rescue crews found the charred body of Rick Cisneros, 45, of Markham, Ill.
Duty, 46, and Raymound Hernandez, both of Chicago, were missing and presumed dead.
Duty's warning is credited with saving the lives of the other two men on the boat, Rafael Gonzalez and Carlos Alicea, both of Chicago. Gonzalez suffered a sprained ankle escaping the blast.
He clung to the side of the barge until a crew from the Illinois Department of Conservation rescued him. Alicea escaped to an empty barge attached to the fireworks barge. He was not hurt.
All of the men worked for Fireworks Partners Inc. of Crown Point, Ind., which was paid $20,000 to put on the show.
This was the fourth year in a row that Fireworks Partners has conducted Alton's riverfront fireworks show, said Mayor Donald Sandidge. There were no problems in the previous three.
"We'll have to look carefully at what happened," Sandidge said. "Obviously, better safeguards need to be in place and closer inspections are needed."
Alton Fire Chief Donald Dugan, who talked to several witnesses and both survivors, put the blame for the blast on the shell that fell back onto the barge.
He said he believed it was improperly packed.
The Coast Guard is investigating the explosion.
Fireworks Partners could not be reached for comment.
Fireworks At Boat Level
The fireworks display began at 9:17 p.m.
Twenty minutes later, the barge erupted in light and smoke.
"At first, everybody thought it was the finale to the fireworks show," said a witness, Stephan P. Russ, 48, who is in charge of catering for the A lton Belle, moored just upstream from the barge.
"But fireworks don't go off at boat level. We quickly knew that something was wrong."
Russ, a Vietnam veteran, compared the thunderous boom of the explosion to an artillery shell being fired. "And it looked like a giant version of a book of matches igniting."
On Friday afternoon, Duty's wife and his sister awaited word on the search along the riverfront.
The two women, Rosemary Duty and Sheila Duty, arrived in Alton after getting word of the blast.
Ralph Duty and Cisneros have been putting on fireworks displays for the company for the past 10 years, said Sheila Duty, who is Ralph Duty's sister and Cisneros' niece.
The two men were good friends with the company owners and worked for them in the summer.
Rosemary Duty said her husband always made sure he yelled out a warning if a shell malfunctioned.
She sometimes accompanied him to displays, including one in Wisconsin last weekend. She was planning on attending the Alton fireworks but was unable to make the trip.
"He always made sure things were safe," said Rosemary Duty.
Searchers looked for the two missing men until midnight Thursday, then search efforts were resumed at 6 a.m. Friday.
Crews were accompanied by German shepherds capable of finding victims.
Authorities held out little hope that either man could be alive.
The two missing men apparently were not wearing life jackets, an obvious safety violation for workers on a fireworks barge, said Lt. Todd Hall of the Coast Guard in St. Louis.
This was the first time Ralph Duty and Cisneros had put on a fireworks display from a body of water, Sheila Duty said.
"It must have been a bad explosion because my brother can swim like a fish," Sheila Duty said.
`Wasn't A Grand Finale'
Barbra Williams and Louis Stewart were watching the display on a levee across the river from the barge.
They saw a fire on the barge, then nothing for almost three minutes, Williams said.
Some spectators started leaving, thinking the show was over.
Suddenly fireworks started shooting off the end of the barge, in a waterfall of sparks.
Williams said there was a giant cloud of smoke following the explosion, which reminded her of the mushroom cloud that appears after an atomic bomb.
"You knew doggone well that wasn't a grand finale," Stewart said.
The barge used by the fireworks people was a large, flat, metal sand barge.
Alton Fire Chief Dugan said: "We warn people all the time: fireworks are dangerous. This shows that even professionals can make mistakes. It's a dangerous job."
Copyright © 1997 Post Dispatch and Pulitzer Technologies Inc.
When the mortar shell blew up just a few feet above the barge, igniting the other fireworks, many in Alton mistook it for the show's finale.
The Alton fireworks show was 10 minutes from its finale when the 8-inch mortar shell took off, destined for an explosion 100 feet above the Mississippi River. But after rising only six feet, the shell fizzled, falling onto the barge packed with explosives.
"Fire in the hole!" Kenneth Duty yelled to four co-workers on board the barge Thursday night.
One man jumped to an attached, empty barge. Another jumped overboard, clinging to the fireworks barge before it ignited 120 yards from Alton's riverfront. It was 9:37 p.m.
At first, spectators were awestruck by the bright explosions.
"People were cheering," said Peggy Tavernier of Alton.
Then, fireworks began cascading into the river, and a dark brown cloud formed over the barge. The riverfront crowd went silent.
Later, rescue crews found the charred body of one of the men, Rick Cisneros, 45, on the barge. He was from Markham, Ill.
Duty, 46, and Raymound Hernandez, another man on the barge, were missing and presumed dead. They are from Chicago.
Duty's warning is credited with saving the lives of the other two men on board, Rafael Gonzalez and Carlos Alicea, both of Chicago.
Gonzalez jumped overboard and clung to the barge's side for a few minutes until rescued by a crew from the Illinois Department of Conservation. He suffered a sprained ankle.
Alicea escaped to the empty barge. He was not hurt.
All of the men worked for Fireworks Partners Inc., of Crown Point, Ind., which was paid $20,000 to put on the show.
This was the fourth year in a row that Fireworks Partners has conducted Alton's riverfront fireworks show, said Alton Mayor Donald Sandidge. There were no problems during the previous three.
"We'll have to look carefully at what happened," Sandidge said at a press conference Friday. "Obviously, better safeguards need to be in place and closer inspections are needed."
Alton Fire Chief Donald Dugan, who talked to several witnesses and both survivors, put the blame for the blast on the shell that fell back onto the barge. He said he believed it was improperly packed.
The Coast Guard is investigating.
Fireworks Partners could not be reached for comment. Representatives of the company were in Alton Friday to pick up an equipment truck.
`Something Was Wrong'
The fireworks display began at 9:17 p.m.
Twenty minutes later, the barge erupted in light and smoke.
"At first everybody thought it was the finale to the fireworks show," said a witness, Stephan P. Russ, 48, who is in charge of catering for the Alton Belle, parked just upstream from the barge.
"But fireworks don't go off at boat level. We quickly knew that something was wrong."
Russ, a Vietnam veteran, compared the thunderous boom of the explosion to an artillery round being fired. "And it looked like a giant version of a book of matches igniting."
Coast Guard Lt. Andrew Cheney was enjoying the fireworks from the deck of the Alton Belle when a voice came across his radio from the towboat Helen B: "There's an explosion."
The towboat was tied up to an empty, buffer barge and the trailing fireworks barge. Within seconds of the Helen B's call, Cheney sent five patrol boats to the scene. They had been on the river keeping pleasure boats from the fireworks display.
The Helen B then pushed the two barges upstream to a rocky shore where Alton firefighters extinguished the flames and found the body of Cisneros.
Divers And Dogs Search
A search for the two missing workers began immediately, continued until midnight Thursday and resumed at 6 a.m. Friday.
Five boats and three divers scoured the river Friday, beginning roughly where the barge exploded and working south to the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, about two miles downstream. Crews were accompanied by German shepherds capable of detecting human remains.
The Mississippi River is running high and fast, making it nearly impossible for rescuers to focus on any one area.
"It could be a day. It could be a week. It could be a month before they surface," said Dugan, the Alton fire chief.
The two missing men apparently were not wearing life jackets, a safety violation for workers on a fireworks barge, said Lt. Todd Hall of the Coas t Guard in St. Louis.
At 4 p.m. Friday, divers stopped searching. Crews continued to use search dogs and to drag the river. As of Friday night, the men still were missing.
Family Keeps Vigil
Sheila Duty rocked gently back and forth as she sat on the grass at the river's edge Friday afternoon. She watched divers search for the two men - one her brother - missing since the explosion.
"It must have been a bad explosion because my brother can swim like a fish," Duty said.
Her brother, Ralph Kenneth Duty, is known as Ken to his friends and family - and is the man who yelled the warning to his co-workers. (That warning - "Fire in the hole!" - is the universal warning that an explosive has been lighted.)
Sheila Duty came to Alton with her brother's wife, Rosemary Duty, when they heard about the explosion. Sheila Duty's uncle is Rick Cisneros, the man whose body rescue workers found on the barge Thursday night.
The two men were good friends with the fireworks company's owners and worked for them during the busy summer season for 10 years, she said.
Rosemary Duty sat next to her sister-in-law on the river bank and wondered why none of the men had been wearing life jackets. This was the first time they had set off a display from the water, she said.
Duty said her husband always yelled out a warning when shells malfunctioned. She sometimes accompanied him to the displays, including one in Wisconsin last weekend. She was planning on going to Alton with him but was unable to attend.
Ken Duty's warning may have saved the life of two of the workers on the barge, but it was little comfort to his wife Friday.
Copyright © 1997 Post Dispatch and Pulitzer Technologies Inc.
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