c'mon baby, light my fireworks

The festivities were all prepared for the July 4th holiday in the town of Poulsbo and on Bainbridge Island. These small communities on the west side of Puget Sound can't compete with the holiday extravaganzas in Seattle, but their annual fireworks event, which they put on a day early, on the 3rd, is a significant local happening, and this year's was all ready to go.

The fireworks were safely stored in a locked shipping container at an auto wrecking yard a few miles south of Poulsbo.

Nine days ago and sometime after midnight, the operator of the wrecking yard, who apparently lives on site, decided he wanted to go outside and give his new rifle a try. See where this is going?

He began shooting the junk cars in the lot. Of course, one of his rounds ricocheted off a car and struck the shipping container full of fireworks. The explosion was heard miles away, lit up the night sky with a spectacular but very short fireworks show, left a large, smoldering crater, and propelled the scorched remnant of the container 20 feet laterally.

"Oops!" says the headline of the Seattle Times story, which has all the details. The only thing I'm still wondering is why this local story is by-lined "Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times."