A 4-year-old girl has died after a firework explosion in Clintonville.
Around 10:30 p.m. Monday, an ambulance was dispatched to a house on Hughes Street for a reported explosion.
Police learned that a 42-year-old Clintonville man was setting off fireworks in his front yard with his young daughter, later identified as 4-year-old Alyssa Chmielewski.
Her father put a bundle of sparklers together in a metal tube and then lit them with another sparker, according to police. The tube exploded, sending schrapnel flying.
Pieces hit Alyssa in her neck and chest, police said. She died at the home.
"Those sparklers, which we all felt that were safe to be used, were put together in a configuration in which they weren't designed to do," said Clintonville Police Chief James Beggs. "This created a situation where it caused an explosion, and the metal from that tube they were placed in caused a very tragic death."
The investigation is ongoing. No charges have been filed.
An autopsy has been ordered and will be conducted on July 11.
Clintonville Police were assisted at the scene by the Clintonville Area Ambulance Service, Marion Police, Thedastar, the Waupaca County Coroner's Office, and the Clintonville Fire Department.
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