GREENBACK, Tenn. — A Maryville man died on the Fourth of July after a fireworks accident in Greenback, the Blount County Sheriff's Office said.
Deputies responded to an emergency call regarding an unconscious person around 10 p.m. on Evergreen Farms Lane in Greenback. Deputies said they arrived to find three people performing CPR on a man.
The deputies took over providing aid in hopes of saving the victim, who was identified as 35-year-old Matthew Sellars. He was pronounced dead at 10:30 p.m.
"They sat there for maybe an hour, hour and a half or so, and then they all just kind of started to leave slowly. After that, the ambulance came by really slowly. So, I knew something pretty bad had probably happened at that point," said Ben Slack, a neighbor in Blount County. "You hear about this stuff happening. I've never lived near a firework incident like this where, you know, it caused a fatality. So that's definitely something to think about."
According to BCSO, one of the witnesses said they were shooting fireworks with Sellars and another person by holding the fireworks with their hands. The witness said a firework exploded and went into Sellars' chest, leaving a large chest wound.
The witness said Sellars fell to the ground bleeding.
"I saw a large hole in Mr. Sellars chest and a cut on his right hand. Mr. Sellars was pronounced deceased at 2230 hours and was transported to Blount Memorial Hospital by AMR," the incident report said.
BCSO called the incident "sad and unfortunate."