Bootleg Fireworks Factory Blows Up

NEWPORT, Ky. -- A bootleg fireworks factory blew up Thursday in a loud, flashing explosion that killed two people inside, injured 25 people on the streets and in their homes and shattered windows in buildings three blocks away.

Streets in the area were showered with debris and firecracker casings landed on high-tension wires and the tops of other buildings, fire officials said. Many of the injured were struck by flying glass propelled through the windows of their homes by the force of the glass.

At least 100 people had to be moved from their homes.

Fire officials said the fireworks inside the wood and concrete building -- leveled in a single blast that one witness said was louder than that of an artillery cannon, apparently caused the explosion.

One of the men killed was tentatively identified as the operator of the bootleg factory, an auto body shop that had had been converted to the manufacture of illegal fireworks.

Authorities reported extensive damage to buildings in a three-block area, with windows shattered in at least 100 buildings. Those injured all were people outside the building who suffered lacerations from flying glass. None of the injuries was serious.

'I heard this explosion and all of a sudden the building started shaking with the force 10 times that of a Kings Island (a nearby amusement park) fireworks display,' said Joe Stadtmiller, 59, owner of Newport Tax Service, which is next door to the basted building. 'We looked outside and saw the rain of tar sheets and tin and debris.'

'There was a big flash and then I got hit by flying glass,' said Glenn Pricket, 52, a chef who witnessed the explosion from inside his a restaurant across the street.

'I looked out and the garage was leveled. I thought that a plane had crashed. I saw all this metal hanging from the high-tension wires. The sound was unbelievable. I shot 90mm cannons in World War II and it wasn't anything like this.'

State arson investigator Jim Stephens said the two bodies were found in the rubble of the building located in the downtown business section of Newport, a town of 20,000 directly across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

Newport vice Mayor Johnny Peluso said, 'I understand that one of the fatalities is a man that I shut down a few years ago for bootlegging fireworks just a few blocks away from here. I didn't know he was back in business here. If I had known about it, I would have stopped this one too.'

Newport Fire Chief Ralph Quitter said the building was leased to Victor Scharstein, the same man to whom Peluso referred.

'He had been involved with other fireworks and explosions in the area,' said Quitter.

'We have to believe fireworks were involved here.'

Quitter said Scharstein was arrested for possession and sale of illegal fireworks in June 1976.

'We found numerous casings for firecrackers in the area and also found fireworks components on roofs of adjacent buildings and in the streets,' Quitter said.

The injured were taken to St. Luke's Hospital in nearby Fort Thomas.

Teen-agers said people often bought fireworks in the area of the blast.

Ron Barth, 15, who is a freshman at Newport Catholic High School and lives about three blocks from the explosion site, said, 'I know a lot of people who have bought fireworks in this area. You can buy M-80s for about 50 cents or 75 cents and you can buy bottle rockets.'

UPI Story, By Janet Walsh