8‑year-old girl dies after illegal fireworks display misfires in Buena Park; homeowner arrested

BUENA PARK, Calif. (CNS) — An 8‑year-old girl who was killed dur­ing an ille­gal July Fourth fire­works dis­play at a neigh­bor­hood in Bue­na Park was iden­ti­fied by author­i­ties Sun­day as Jas­mine Nguyen of Ana­heim

Jas­mine was injured at about 9:45 p.m. Fri­day in the 8000 block of Corn­flower Cir­cle, north of La Pal­ma and Stan­ton avenues, accord­ing to the Bue­na Park Police Depart­ment. Offi­cers were patrolling there after see­ing a large quan­ti­ty of fire­works det­o­nate in the area, and observed fam­i­ly mem­bers “fran­ti­cal­ly car­ry­ing a child into a res­i­dence.”

They stopped and attempt­ed life-sav­ing efforts before the girl was rushed to UC Irvine Med­ical Cen­ter, where she was pro­nounced dead.

Through ini­tial inves­ti­ga­tion, a large ille­gal fire­works dis­play, which was placed in the street by the home­own­er, failed and began mis­fir­ing toward the res­i­dence where the child was,” police said Sat­ur­day. “This caused oth­er ille­gal fire­works to ignite, which were near the child and oth­ers. At some point, the child had been struck, caus­ing fatal injuries. Sev­er­al oth­er indi­vid­u­als were present, but no sig­nif­i­cant injuries were report­ed.”

The depart­ment added that the home­own­er was arrest­ed, and charges are pend­ing upon review from the Orange Coun­ty Dis­trict Attor­ney’s Office. The BPPD was work­ing with Orange Coun­ty Fire Author­i­ty inves­ti­ga­tors and the Orange Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s Depart­ment Bomb Squad.

Unlike some South­land cities that ban res­i­den­tial fire­works com­plete­ly, Bue­na Park allows so-called “Safe-and-Sane” fire­works.