FIREWORKS SALES END WITH BLAST; INJURIES ARE FEW

Sale of fireworks was booming business, while traffic fatalities were few in the region over the Fourth of July holiday.

But the discharge of fireworks may have led to a house fire in Cape Girardeau late Thursday afternoon, authorities said.

The fire occurred at a four-room house at 511 LaCruz in south Cape Girardeau. Authorities said no one was injured. The fire was reported at 5:20 p.m. by a relative of the owner, who lives out of state, said Assistant Fire Chief Paul Kesterson of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department.

Seven firefighters battled the fire for about two hours. The home was declared a total loss, said Kesterson.

Kesterson said fireworks debris was found in the yard of the home and that although no absolute cause has been determined, careless use of fireworks may have ignited the home.

For fireworks dealers and retailers, Independence Day was a busy time. Fireworks dealers and retailers call their operations "a last-minute business."

"You don't really know how things will be until midnight of July 4," said E.C. Younghouse of Younghouse Distributors Co. Inc. "A lot of fireworks sales are generated the final two days of sales."

Scott Givens of Kinder's Fireworks agrees.

"Things have been rocking here the past two or three days," said Givens, who managed one of Kinder's operations, along South Kingshighway at the Schnucks-Kmart parking lot. "And Thursday, things were busier than ever."

By law, fireworks retailers had to shut down at midnight Thursday.

"We've had a good season," said Younghouse. "Our sales, going into the final couple of days, were well above those of a year ago."

"Sales have been above expectations," said Givens.

The 1991 season, which started June 10, has been a good one for retailers and users of the fireworks.

No serious fireworks injuries were reported at Cape Girardeau's two hospitals.

A spokesperson at Southeast Hospital said the hospital saw no fireworks injury cases.

A St. Francis spokesman said, "We've had about a half-dozen cases the past two days, but nothing of a serious nature. Two or three case involved youngsters holding on to firecrackers too long and scorching their fingers, and two or three other youngsters suffered minor facial or eye injuries from exploding bottle rockets."

Traffic accidents in Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri were light the first 28 hours of the holiday, which officially ends at midnight Sunday. But one accident on Interstate 55 near Portageville resulted in the death of two Louisiana residents.

The Missouri Highway Patrol said Anna Schuebel, 22, and David Williams, 27, both of Metairie, La., were involved in a crash at 11:42 p.m. Wednesday and thrown onto Interstate 55, where they were struck by two other vehicles.

"The Williams/Schuebel vehicle was traveling north on I-55," said the patrol spokesman. "It veered off the roadway and struck a guard rail, returned to the interstate and struck another guard rail before going airbound.

"The occupants were thrown from the car in the southbound lane of the interstate," the spokesman said. "They were then struck by a van and station wagon."

As of early Thursday night, only one other fatal accident had occurred in Missouri. Thomas Dennison, 24, of Pittsburg, Kan., died late Wednesday night when his motorcycle struck a tractor-trailer head-on on Highway 160 near Lamar, the patrol said.

Illinois State Police reported Thursday night that there had been no serious accidents in the lower seven counties of the state.