On July 4th at approximately 9:30 PM, Lakeport Police Officers were dispatched to a North High Street location to investigate the report of a juvenile being struck and burned by a firework.
Upon our arrival, Lakeport Fire Protection District (LFPD) Personnel were already on scene attending to the victim.
Investigation revealed that Ellery Penas, 46, of Millbrae, CA lit a multi round firework launcher loaded with flaming ball charges. After the system began to fire a charge launched toward a group of people and struck a 4 year old child in the torso area burning through the clothing. A later medical examination at a hospital determined the child had received second degree burns.
Officers placed Penas under arrest for felony child endangerment causing injury, launching a dangerous firework likely to injure and for possession is illegal fireworks. Penas was booked into the Lake County Correctional Facility.
This investigation remains ongoing and anyone with information regarding the case is asked to contact Investigating Officer Juan Altamirano at [email protected] or 707-263-5491.
We have Zero Tolerance for Illegal Fireworks and will be aggressive in our efforts to seize them and prosecute offenders. These fireworks are dangerous and have the potential to cause very serious or fatal injuries as well as destructive fires. We are lucky that this child’s injuries were not more severe than they were.
We also had several other fireworks related incidents and arrests, including a grass fire started by a shooting firework and we seized over 380 illegal fireworks. Between July 1 and 4 we had hundreds of illegal fireworks being shot off in the city and many complaints from citizens regarding these incidents.
Photos show the launcher involved in this incident, similar flaming ball charges and an assortment of the illegal fireworks we seized.
