Child, two adults injured when cannon explodes

JEREMY PAWLOSKI; The Olympian ROCHESTER - For the second consecutive year, metal shrapnel from an exploding cannon struck a Thurston County child during a Fourth of July celebration. A cannon exploded about 10:30 p.m. Friday during an outdoor gathering in the 9200 block of Applegate Loop in Rochester, sending an 11-year-old boy to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with "severe lacerations to his leg and severe lacerations to his abdominal area," said Thurston County Sheriff’s Sgt. Cheryl Stines. Two adults also were injured: a 34-year-old male suffered severe abdominal injuries and a woman in her 30s suffered abdominal and leg injuries, Stines said. The sheriff’s office would not release the names of those injured. The woman was taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia and the man to Providence Centralia Hospital,... [read full story]