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A fourth person died today from injuries suffered after a truck loaded with fireworks for an Outer Banks July 4 celebration blew up in the resort town of Ocracoke.
That fourth victim had extensive burns and had been flown by helicopter Saturday to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, N.C., but died this afternoon, said Hyde County spokeswoman Jamie Tunnell.
After sifting through debris all day, investigators for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ruled this afternoon that the explosion was an accident that occurred during the fireworks show set-up, Tunnell said.
Authorities withheld names of the victims Sunday night.
But a Goldsboro pastor said that Sunday that the four victims were from the Goldsboro area, about 45 miles southeast of Raleigh, and three were members of his church, The Lord's Table. Mitch Ham, the church's worship pastor and music director, identified the four as Terry Holland, Lisa Simmons, Charles Kirkland Jr., and Mark Hill. Hill was not a regular church member, but had visited there, Ham said.
"It's hard," Ham said, "especially with three different families all in one church, in the same town."
Meanwhile, the annual July 4 parade in Ocracoke was postponed until today, but turned into more of a memorial to the victims. "It was an appropriate thing to do," Tunnell said. "People lost their lives."
Investigators haven't yet specified what caused the massive amount of fireworks to go off at once.
"That was all they said when they wrapped up their investigation -- that the explosion was an accident that occurred during the set-up of the show," Tunnell said.
The explosion that shook much of Ocracoke went off about 9 a.m. Saturday, as a crew from Melrose South Pyrotechnics began setting up for the evening's July 4 display. The company, which puts on fireworks displays all over the country, is headquartered in Catawba, S.C., near Rock Hill.
There were enough fireworks stored on a tractor-trailer for a 22-minute show, officials said.
One of the victims died at the scene, a second at the UNC-Chapel Hill Jaycee Burn Center -- where another victim remains in fair condition. Now two have died at Pitt Memorial.
Melrose officials didn't return calls from the Observer. But in a statement, they said they are working with federal and local authorities to the determine the cause.
"All our thoughts and prayers ... are with the families of the victims of the accident," the statement said. "Everyone at Melrose South Polytechnics is grief-stricken over the loss of life and injuries sustained in this terrible tragedy."
