WOMAN BURNED BY FIREWORKS

The Fourth of July fireworks display at Arena Park Saturday night hit a little too close to home for two Cape Girardeau families who were injured by a fireworks explosion.

There were no serious injuries, but one woman was treated for burns on her arm and leg.

Cape Girardeau police had little information Sunday about the incident. No exact cause of the accident had been determined, said a police spokesman.

The accident occurred around 10 p.m. when fireworks fell on the bed of a truck where the families were sitting and injured Donna York, Nancy Birk and two of Birk's children.

York was sitting on a lawn chair in the back of a pickup truck parked across from Arena Park watching the fireworks with her family and their friends Saturday when the group was hit by flying debris.

They were parked near storage units, but behind a barricade set up to keep people from the area where the fireworks were being ignited.

Something fell between Donna York's legs and exploded. She believes it came from the fireworks display.

Nancy Birk described it as a "huge white blast."

Paramedics, who were stationed nearby, examined York, who had been closest to the blast, and recommended that she go to the hospital. They couldn't find the cause of the explosion.

York was treated for burn spots on her left leg at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Doctors removed tiny particles, similar to shrapnel from her right let and left arm. She was released Sunday afternoon.

"I was just lucky it didn't hit me in the face," she said.

As the Birks were on their way home, their 3-year-old son began holding his ears and both Nancy and her 10-year-old daughter began complaining about ringing in their ears. They, too, went to the hospital but doctors could find no apparent damage.

"We're very, very fortunate," Birk said.

The Birk and York families have parked their vehicles in the same place for the past five or six years to watch the fireworks and were not injured before.

"We always sit there. The whole area was crowded with people," York said.

"Throughout the whole thing, debris was falling all around us -- ash and pieces of cardboard. One flaming piece fell right in front of the truck," Birk.