Investigation launched after ‘fireworks malfunction’ at popular display

The Delphi Centre in Sudbury Picture: GREGG BROWN

Sudbury Town Council said it is conducting a ‘full and thorough’ investigation after one person suffered a minor injury at the Delphi fireworks display in the town on Sunday night.

Visitors to the free event reported on social media that embers were “raining down” on crowds, but the council stressed all health and safety procedures were followed for the display.

In a statement, Sudbury Town Council said: “We would like to apologise for last night’s incident at the town council fireworks display held at the Delphi Centre.

“We can assure you that we take the health and safety at all our events extremely seriously and that all safety procedures were followed for this event.

Firefighters were called to tackle the bonfire in Stowmarket Picture: ARCHANT (Image: Archant)

“The organiser visited the safety advisory group prior to the event to run through the event and ensure all safety measures were being met.

“The firefighters were informed immediately of the malfunction via the radio and the fireworks were stopped.

“There was only one firework-related injury reported which was treated on the night by St John Ambulance, this was categorised as minor.

“We have contacted the company who provided the fireworks to find out why the fireworks malfunctioned in the way they did.”

Meanwhile in Stowmarket on Saturday, a fire crew was called to the Museum of East Anglian Life to bring the bonfire at the fireworks event under control.

Chloe Brett, from the Museum of East Anglian Life, said: “A decision was taken to reduce the size of the bonfire prior to the event, but the wind changed and we then had that to deal with.

“We always have a fire team on site and the local fire crew came out and dealt with the incident very quickly.

“Generally I don’t think it caused too much upset and we’ve had lots of positive feedback on social media about the display.”

Organisers of the popular Abbey Gardens fireworks in Bury St Edmunds faced some online criticism after the decision was made to cancel the display due to strong winds.

Organisers the Bury St Edmunds Round Table apologised for the disappointment but said it could not risk public safety.

A statement via Facebook said: “The firing position in the gardens means that southerly winds will take it directly over the crowd.

“The gust speed at explosion altitude will be quite strong, and this will cause elements of warm fallout the size of car keys to fall on the crowd and in an enclosed space of a thousands of people this increases the risks.

“We hate to cancel it as we have put months of work into this, as we have for the past 20 years but ourselves and the fireworks contractor cannot risk public safety.”