Crowd fires on Ill. authorities with fireworks

PEORIA — Peoria police and firefighters trying to get to a trash bin fire at a public housing complex say they were fired on with commercial-grade fireworks and pelted with bottles.

Police Officer Doug Burgess told Peoria's WMBD Radio that the firefighters and a couple of police officers initially couldn't get to the fire Monday night because of what he said were several hundred people watching fireworks being fired in the complex.

Burgess says officers had to use launchers that fire pepper spray or pepper powder to disperse the crowd.

He says several officers and firefighters were burned. No injuries were reported among the residents of the housing complex.

Burgess says no one was arrested because of the small number of officers at the incident.