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Fireworks barge burns off Jersey shore

Explosion
The firework-fueled blast happened about one mile off the New Jersey coast  


ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (CNN) -- A barge laden with fireworks caught fire and burned well into the night Wednesday off Atlantic City, a state police official said.

No injuries or deaths were reported in the incident.

Sgt. Edward Keebler of the Marine Law Enforcement Bureau said the seven people on board the burning barge were rescued by Coast Guard and State Police crews. A second barge connected to the burning barge was not on fire.

The barges are about one mile off the coast, Keebler said.

The blaze caused fireworks shells aboard the barge to explode for about half an hour after the end of an Independence Day show on the Jersey Shore. Witnesses told The Associated Press that fireworks appeared to explode at random, but some believed the explosions were part of the show.

"There was one section of the fireworks display that was like a thousand shotgun blasts," one witness, David Greenspun, told The AP. "It seemed that would have been the grand finale. In fact there was a round of applause, at which point we started seeing more fireworks, but they were not taking off up into the sky. They were pouring down into the ocean."

The cause of the blaze was not yet known. Severe thunderstorms kept firefighting crews away from the barge early Thursday, Keebler said.

"We'll probably just let it burn itself out," he said.






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