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A fourth person died Sunday and a fifth remained hospitalized with minor burns, a day after a truck loaded with fireworks blew up in the Outer Banks resort town of Ocracoke.
The victims had been hired to put on a fireworks display for the town by Melrose South Pyrotechnics, headquartered in Catawba, S.C., near Rock Hill.
Authorities withheld the victims' identities Sunday night, but a Goldsboro pastor said the four victims were from the Goldsboro area, about 45 miles southeast of Raleigh. Three were members of his church, The Lord's Table, and the fourth was not a regular church member but had visited there, said Mitch Ham, the church's worship pastor and music director.
“It's hard,” Ham said, “especially with three different families all in one church, in the same town.”
After sifting through debris all day, investigators for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ruled Sunday that the explosion was an accident that occurred during the setup for the fireworks show, said Hyde County spokeswoman Jamie Tunnell.
Investigators haven't yet specified what caused the massive amount of fireworks to go off at once.
The explosion that shook much of Ocracoke went off about 9 a.m. Saturday as a Melrose South crew began setting up for the evening's July Fourth display. The company puts on fireworks displays all over the country.
There were enough fireworks stored on a tractor-trailer for a 22-minute show, officials said.
Melrose officials didn't return calls but said in a statement that they are working with authorities to the determine the cause.
“All our thoughts and prayers… are with the families of the victims of the accident,” the statement said.
The annual July Fourth parade in Ocracoke was postponed until Sunday but turned into more of a memorial to the victims.
