Fireworks Accidents Mar Weekend for Some : Many End Holiday at Beach, Barbecues

Americans went to beaches and parks, fired up barbecues or just rested Sunday after the Fourth of July, but accidents linked to fireworks, including the death of a Chicago firefighter, marred the holiday weekend for some.

Organized festivities continued in some cities, while others cleaned up the litter and trash from the previous day’s huge crowds.

More than two dozen large floats and scores of rafts, canoes and dinghies, all non-motorized, set off at Augusta, Me., in the ninth annual Great Kennebec River Whatever Race, celebrating the river’s reclamation from pollution. Prizes ranged from $1,000 for best overall entry to $1 for most deserving to be sunk.

For the less energetic, lifeguards at Old Orchard Beach on Maine’s southern coast estimated that 30,000 people had hit the sand by noon.

Beaches Packed

The parades, concerts and fireworks displays that dominated the Fourth of July at Boston switched to treks to the beach and visits to Navy ships docked in the harbor. Beaches were packed from the North Shore to Cape Cod.

Festivities were subdued in some cities where tragedy marked the weekend. In Chicago, an attic blaze possibly linked to fireworks killed a firefighter and injured three others late Saturday, authorities said.

The firefighter died from burns and smoke inhalation, Fire Department spokesman Jerry Lawrence said.

Rescue workers Sunday found the bodies of two Indiana girls who were swept into Lake Michigan by strong currents during a Fourth of July outing.

Two young girls died and their father and uncle were injured early Sunday when their camper exploded at a campground in Bucksport, Me. The cause of the explosion was not immediately determined.

Agents from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources returned to Lake Monroe to investigate a lightning strike that killed a teen-ager and injured five people.

Fireworks Barrels Explode

As many as 40 people were injured in Kenosha, Wis., when two barrels of fireworks exploded at the city’s annual fireworks display Saturday, police said.

In the southeastern Washington town of Clarkston, boxes of fireworks intended for the town’s evening Fourth of July display were ignited several hours early by sparks from a test demonstration, police said.

No injuries were reported but the chain explosion damaged three trucks, and fire crews were called to extinguish the blaze. Clarkston officials ordered new fireworks and scheduled the town display for Sunday night.

One man was in intensive care Sunday in New York City after he was injured in his backyard when a Roman candle exploded in his face.

And a New York man watching the Macy’s fireworks display from a boat on the East River died after he fell overboard and was struck by the boat’s propeller.