CHRIS HAIRR
U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Safety Office
Fort Eustis, Virginia

The Fourth of July is a festive time of year. Many of us get the day off and have cookouts or parties, and some cities and towns hold festivals. Of course, no Independence Day celebration would be complete without a fireworks display. From bottle rockets to Roman candles, fireworks have entertained and captivated our minds since we were small children.

Unfortunately, a lot of folks don’t take the major hazards related to fireworks seriously. Some people enjoy igniting firecrackers or cherry bombs and holding them in their hand as long as possible before throwing them — sometimes at each other. People just don’t seem to understand what can happen with these unsafe practices.

Many of those who have used fireworks have a close-call story to tell. My father had multiple fireworks incidents when he was younger, but one in particular stands out. When he was 15, he and his friends from the neighborhood decided to take some Roman candles to a nearby field. It was a particularly dry summer that year, and the field had tall grass — up to his knees at some points. So they wouldn’t be seen by police, they chose a spot that was out of sight from the road. They lit their Roman candles and started shooting them almost horizontally. Then, as some foolish people do, they started shooting them toward one another.

For about an hour and a half that night, they ran around that field having fun. Then, a scary series of events took place. One of my father’s friends had one of the Roman candle’s flaming orbs get caught inside his T-shirt sleeve. Almost simultaneously, another friend was struck in the eye. The two injured teenagers and one other stopped shooting their Roman candles so they could check how badly they were injured. The other three boys, including my father, continued playing.

About 10 minutes later, my father inadvertently shot a few of the fireballs into an area of thicker, drier grass. Those two shots caused the lower portion of the grass to ignite, and, almost instantaneously, the entire corner of the field was on fire. When they saw the blaze, they immediately ran away. The majority of the field eventually ended up burning. Fortunately, no property, other than the empty field, was damaged, and none of them were caught by police. My father and his friends were lucky to escape further injury. With the fire spreading as quickly as it did, it could’ve very easily surrounded them, trapping them in the field.

Still, there were some medical consequences to their careless behavior. The young man who had the orb shot up his sleeve had to go to the emergency room with third-degree burns across the underside of his upper arm, along his armpit and down a few inches on the side of his torso. The doctors had to give him skin grafts, and he spent a week in the burn unit to make sure the injury was kept clean. For as long as he and my father kept in contact, he had bad scars all along the grafted areas.

The other young man — the one that was hit in the eye by the orb — also had to go to the emergency room. He suffered permanent damage to his eye and eyelid and had to have surgery that night. Sadly, his eye sustained too much damage to ever recover, so it had to be removed. It was replaced with a glass eye that he must live with for the rest of his life. He had to spend two weeks in the hospital recovering from the surgery and the burns on his eyelid.

That night, two people’s lives were forever changed. But despite the horrible injuries his friends suffered, my father continued using fireworks unsafely. Eventually, though, he saw the error of his ways.

If you plan to shoot fireworks, please keep my father’s story in mind. When used properly, fireworks can add excitement to a celebration. In the hands of the careless, however, the festivities could end badly.

FYI

A new report from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) highlights the hazards posed by consumer fireworks use. In 2023, the CPSC received reports of eight deaths and an estimated 9,700 injuries involving fireworks. Out of the eight deaths, five were associated with firework misuse, two with a device malfunction and one involved unknown circumstances. The report shows that between 2008 and 2023, injuries from fireworks increased overall, despite recent data showing a steady decline since the peak in 2020 during the pandemic when public displays were canceled.

To understand more about fireworks-related injuries and hazards around the Fourth of July, the CPSC conducted an analysis of the injury data in the four weeks surrounding the holiday in 2023 and found the following:

• Teenagers 15-19 years old had the highest estimated rate of emergency department-treated, fireworks-related injuries. Children ages 5-9 years old had the second highest rate.
• There were an estimated 800 emergency department-treated injuries associated with firecrackers and 700 with sparklers.
• The parts of the body most often injured by fireworks were hands and fingers (an estimated 35 percent of injuries) along with the head, face and ears (an estimated 22 percent).
• About 42 percent of the emergency department-treated, fireworks-related injuries were for burns.
• In fiscal 2023, approximately 18 percent of selected and tested fireworks products were found to contain noncompliant components, including fuse violations, the presence of prohibited chemicals and pyrotechnic materials overload.

The CPSC urges consumers to celebrate safely this holiday by following these safety tips:

• Never allow children to play with or ignite fireworks, including sparklers. Sparklers burn at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees — hot enough to melt some metals.
• Make sure fireworks are legal in your area and only purchase and set off fireworks that are labeled for consumer (not professional) use.
• Never use fireworks while impaired by alcohol or drugs.
• Keep a bucket of water or a garden hose handy, in case of a fire or other mishap.
• Light fireworks one at a time, then move back quickly.
• Never try to relight or handle malfunctioning fireworks. Soak them with water and throw them away.
• Never place any part of your body directly over a fireworks device when lighting the fuse. Move to a safe distance immediately after lighting fireworks.
• Never point or throw fireworks (including sparklers) at anyone.
• After fireworks complete their burning, to prevent a trash fire, douse the spent device with plenty of water from a bucket or hose before discarding it.

For more information, visit the CPSC website at https://www.cpsc.gov.

Source: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission