![\"KC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/94edab2b-de36-4b9a-a10c-38f84b6865ae_1677272794.jpg\")
<\/a>PITTSFIELD, N.H. \u2014<\/p>\nA remote-controlled balloon malfunctioned and caught fire at the Suncook Valley Rotary Hot Air Balloon Rally in Pittsfield on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
The fire broke out around 6:30 a.m. <\/p>\n
The balloon, which was shaped and designed like a fire truck, was powered by propane. It was controlled by a remote and is not a balloon that typically carries people.<\/p>\n
The person operating the controls was injured with possible burns and was later transported to Concord Hospital, according to Pittsfield Fire Chief Peter Pszonowsky. Suncook Valley Rotary officials later told WMUR the operator was treated and released. <\/p>\n
The fire was quickly extinguished, the chief said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was controlling it and something malfunctioned,” Pszonowsky said.<\/p>\n
Fire crews were on standby at the event when the balloon’s basket caught fire.<\/p>\n
“I had a lot of help from bystanders with a fire extinguisher,” Pszonowsky said. \u201cIt worked out well.”<\/p>\n
The rally’s events continued after the fire was put out. <\/p>\n
The rally, which is in its 44th year, began Friday and continues through Sunday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remote-controlled balloon malfunctions, catches fire at hot air balloon event in Pittsfield; 1 injured PITTSFIELD, N.H. \u2014 A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[69134,57937,4,450,39544,10107,3727,10070,126543,451,20257,338753,3591,2804,3,15622,58343,338752,22385,6087,338751,452,453],"class_list":["post-798267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-balloon","tag-basket","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-bystander","tag-control","tag-event","tag-fire","tag-fire-extinguisher","tag-headlines","tag-help","tag-hot-air-balloon-event","tag-lot","tag-new-hampshire","tag-news","tag-nh","tag-pittsfield","tag-pszonowsky","tag-rally","tag-saturday-morning","tag-suncook-valley-rotary-hot-air-balloon-rally","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}