Exclusive: Video shows huge fireworks explosion in Upper Manhattan, police search for suspects
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Fireworks are an issue every summer in New York City, but these are on another level.
Video circulating online and provided to Eyewitness News exclusively by the NYPD shows a massive fireworks explosion.
The explosion happened in the middle of Sherman Avenue and West 204th Street in Manhattan's Inwood neighborhood last Friday.
"These are not just simple fireworks going off," Eyewitness News Reporter Derick Waller said.
"A 911 caller described it as a bomb going off, and if you look at the video it's quite disturbing," said Chief of Detectives Jimmy Essig, NYPD. "It's unacceptable in New York City."
Essig is looking for information about the people involved.
One Instagram video shows them putting one of these bombs together. It's fireworks set off inside a bag of flour, meant to enhance the explosion.
"It's shocking. It's shocking that that could go on," he said.
Of course, illegal fireworks are nothing new. Last June, a 3-year old boy was hit by a firework fired from the street that went in through an open sixth-floor window. He suffered burns and a cut to his head that needed stitches.
"Is this the time of year we start to see this sort of thing ramping up?" Waller asked.
"We've seen it in the last couple of weeks, where the fireworks are ramping up and it's a quality of life issue," Essig said. "We've seen people lose fingers, get seriously injured, but in this particular incident, you have someone riding by on a bike. You have a school across the street."
The police are looking for your help finding the people involved.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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