Fireworks in Landa Park for 4th of July - And Not Just in the Sky

(New Braunfels, TX) -- There were fireworks in Landa Park for the 4th of July, and they weren’t just in the sky. In the minutes leading up to the big pyrotechnics show Wednesday night, a fight broke out at the Dance Slab between the band and people in the crowd who were there to see the free show.

The incident began at just after 9pm when a 7-year old boy accidentally fell in front of the stage. Police reports indicate that a 14-year old girl went to help the boy when one of the band members allegedly pushed the girl. The father of that girl responded by allegedly punching the band member, leading to another member of the band jumping onto the back of the father and placing him in a choke hold. Chaos then ensued as numerous people from the very large crowd rushed the stage area in an effort to break up the fight. New Braunfels Police officers quickly made their way to the Dance Slab and separated those involved in the fight and began calming down the crowd. EMS responded to the scene and treated the 7-year old boy for a bump to the back of his head that he sustained when he fell. Police officials described the fight as a case of Class C Misdemeanor assault/mutual combat and no arrests were made.

That incident kicked off a busy next couple of hours for local first responders. Once the fireworks show was over a little after 9:30pm, there was a mass exodus of Landa Park. Thousands had made their way to the park to watch the pyrotechnics, and traffic getting out of the park was extremely heavy, taking a little over an hour to fully clear out.

Meanwhile, across the city, numerous reports of fireworks being shot off illegally came in. In fact, New Braunfels Fire Marshal Patrick O’Connell tells KGNB that illegal fireworks were fairly prolific this year, with reports coming in from all over the city. His team of arson investigators and firefighters made contact with residents at about 100 different spots that night, seizing a total of 60-pounds of illegal fireworks. Three citations and 5 warnings were also issued to the more egregious of violators, and crews continued to receive firework reports until about 2am.

But despite the dry conditions, both in the city and out in the county, there were no major fires reported because of fireworks. Comal County Fire Marshal Wayne Ellington told Commissioners Court yesterday that there were a couple of small grass fires that could be attributed to fireworks, but those were put out quickly, and in general, residents seemed to heed warnings about not using aerial fireworks. In fact, Ellington told Commissioners that of the 20 fireworks vendors in Comal County, 17 agreed to voluntarily pull those products from their shelves, even though there was no official order to do so.