Fireworks hit the crowd at the Stadium of Fire show in Utah

PROVO, Utah (AP) — A malfunctioning firework flew into the stands of a crowded Utah football stadium, striking spectators during a 4th of July celebrationAccording to the authorities and the organizer, up to six people had to be hospitalized.

The accident occurred during the opening ceremony of the Stadium of Fire Showthe main event of the annual Freedom Festival in Provo at Brigham Young University’s LaVell Edwards Stadium. The fireworks were set off in the outdoor arena while several jets flew over the stage.

Organizers stopped the show for about 15 minutes while injured spectators received medical attention, Freedom Festival spokesman Emory Cook said Friday.

Six people were taken to hospital, one of them with serious injuries, Cook said. He did not know the severity of the other injuries or the number of people hit by the fireworks.

Local authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.

Videos posted on social media show individual fireworks deviating from the group, being sent into the sky above the field and landing in the rows of spectators in the stands of the outdoor arena. About 45,000 people attended the sold-out show, Cook said.

“One firework definitely failed, but we are still trying to figure out how that happened,” Cook said. “All fireworks were properly installed prior to the event and were inspected and approved by authorities prior to the show.”

Teresa Jack of Provo, who watched the show from the field, said she saw a rocket fly over her head into the east stands of the stadium, explode, and send up a large cloud of smoke as if a bomb had exploded.

People in the audience began waving to alert officers to the injured and shouted to the speaker on stage: “Stop the show,” she said.

People were asked to stay in their seats while injured people were told to go to a medical tent for treatment, Jack said. In her view, this was a well-organised response that prevented a mass panic from occurring.

Firefighters and paramedics were on the scene when the show began and were tending to injured spectators within a minute, said Jeanie Atherton, spokeswoman for Provo Fire and Rescue.

She said her department had taken only one person to the hospital, but other victims may have traveled in private vehicles.

The event, at which the Jonas Brotherswas resumed with the approval of the Provo Fire Marshal after the fireworks display was investigated following the accident, BYU Police Department spokeswoman Karen Ellingson said.

The fireworks that didn’t work inside the stadium were relatively small compared to the large pyrotechnics used in the show’s finale, Cook said. Those larger fireworks are stored outside the stadium, he said.

The Fourth of July show was organized by Stellar Fireworks of Wichita, Kansas. Company representative Andrew Nguyen said the misfired pyrotechnics came from a device called a repeater, which fires 25 shots at once.

“It flew apart and the shots were no longer vertical but horizontal because the device had no structure,” he said.

Nguyen added that the company has been hosting fireworks displays in Provo for 40 years without any similar incidents.

Jack, who came to the festival to see the Jonas Brothers, said she and her friends almost left during the finale, partly because of the earlier malfunction, but they stayed because the show was incredible. But she said she was just as impressed by the drones as she was by the traditional fireworks in the show, which made her wonder if that might not be a better way to celebrate Independence Day.

“Perhaps it is time for us to reevaluate this tradition,” she said.