Fireworks misfire near Sooner Pool during Bartlesville show
Andy Dossett | The Wiley Post
Sept 8, 2026
No, you weren't imagining it.
If you watched Bartlesville's long-delayed Fourth of July fireworks show Sunday night and thought a couple of those fireworks looked a little too close to the ground, you were right.
At least two shells misfired and landed inside the Sooner Pool deck area before exploding, according to Konrad Brandemuhl with the Kiwanis Club of Bartlesville, which organized the Sept. 7 show.
Spectators enjoyed a bird's-eye view of the fireworks from the Sooner Park play tower during Bartlesville's rescheduled Fourth of July celebration on Sept. 7, 2026.
Andy Dossett | The Wiley Post
The explosions were hard to miss for the crowd gathered around Sooner Park.
A Wiley Post journalist at the event saw fireworks explode at or near ground level inside the pool area on multiple occasions, including once near the beginning of the show and again toward the end. Spectators standing near the fence surrounding the pool ran after each explosion.
After the show, the same Wiley Post journalist heard attendees discussing the blasts and saying debris from the fireworks had struck them. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured.
Brandemuhl confirmed Monday that two shells had misfired.
"There were a few low shells," Brandemuhl said in an update about the show. "Not sure if it was designed that way or shells didn't launch high enough."
He added that "2 shells misfired and landed in the pool deck area before exploding."
"Fireworks are dangerous," Brandemuhl wrote.
A storm before the show
The fireworks had already waited more than two months for their moment.
Bartlesville's Fourth of July celebration was postponed earlier this summer because of storms, eventually landing on the decidedly un-Fourth-of-July date of Sept. 7.
Then, just hours before the rescheduled show, Mother Nature apparently decided she wasn't quite finished.
Brandemuhl said a microburst struck Sooner Park and the fireworks area around 3:45 p.m. Sunday, bringing heavy rain, high winds and visibility that dropped to roughly 50 to 100 yards.
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Three vendor tents and one of Brandemuhl's tents were destroyed, he said, but the fireworks themselves sustained minimal impact.
By nightfall, the weather had cleared enough for the show to go ahead.
Then came the low shells and misfires.
Brandemuhl did not say whether the afternoon storm contributed to the malfunction, and the cause of the misfires remains unclear.
Then the fireworks stopped
The unexpected explosions weren't the night's only hiccup.
Partway through the show, the fireworks abruptly stopped.
There was no immediate explanation for the crowd. During the silence, attendees could be heard wondering aloud whether that was it — whether Bartlesville's long-awaited fireworks show had already come to an unexpectedly short end.
It hadn't.
Brandemuhl said organizers paused the show because people had entered an area where they weren't supposed to be.
"There was a pause in the show because of crowd encroachment," he said.
Video of the event cited by Brandemuhl appears to show three lights moving into the restricted area before the show stopped. Brandemuhl said the individuals were believed to be three children riding scooters.
After they were moved out of the area, the fireworks resumed.
The interruption has organizers already considering additional precautions if the Kiwanis Club puts on another show next summer.
"If we do Firework Show again, next July 4th, I'm going to strongly consider utilizing some reserve officers to block avenues of encroachment," Brandemuhl said.
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