State and federal agents have seized more than 16-hundred pounds of big-time fireworks from the Laurie area at the Lake of the Ozarks. They are now stored in the Highway Patrol’s explosives bunker for safekeeping.
State Fire Marshall Randy Cole says his office worked with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,and Firearms, St.Louis County police, and the Kansas State Fire Marshall to seize the illegally-stored fireworks during the July 4th holiday.
Most of the fireworks are three-inch diameter pyrotechnic commercial display shells that are considered explosives in the law. He says Missouri does not want to have a fireworks explosion similar to the one that recently happened in South Carolina. Several people died.
Cole says the fireworks also were being sold illegally to people in the St. Lousi area who also were not properly licensed. Six people have been arrested. Cole expects state and federal charges to be filed against them.
Upload BPs interview with Randy Cole (4:42 mp3)
