PROVO, Utah — A year after 27 people were injured during a fireworks malfunction at the annual Stadium of Fire event on the Fourth of July, organizers say they've made changes to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
In the Provo Fire Department's incident report, it found the mishap came from one device, a 36-shot "howling tails to hammer" product.
Despite the incident, Josh Rabe is still looking forward to being in the stands at LaVell Edwards Stadium for this year's event.
"Obviously, every year they do this, they're going to take safety very seriously, and there's definitely some lessons learned from last year, so I'm not really worried about it," Rabe said.
Stadium of Fire organizers, America's Freedom Festival in Provo, have hired a new fireworks company and shared that the type of whistle firework that malfunctioned in 2024 will not return to the stadium.
Teen dancer recounts being hit by fireworks at Stadium of Fire:
The Provo City Fire Department is also taking extra steps at Stadium of Fire.
"We require a much more detailed product list of what's coming into the stadium, so we can do an evaluation on it inside the stadium," explained Provo City Fire Marshal Lynn Schofield. "We hadn't done that previously as much."
Schofield says the department is now aware of what fireworks not to let inside the stadium, and the ones they do are thoroughly inspected.
"We will look at every single fire-breathing, exploding thing that happens at the Stadium of Fire, just like we have for the last 20 years," the fire marshal said.
Video below shows the stray firework fired into the crowd (Courtesy: Jake Irving):
Schofield added that while they continue to hope for a full recovery for those injured at last year's event, they want people to feel confident about attending on Friday.
"We just do the very best we can to make sure it comes off like it's supposed to."
