It's that time of year again! Let's blow up body parts while celebrating the 4th!

Man blows off hand while trying to make larger, stronger homemade firework

By ROBERT A. CRONKLETON
The Kansas City Star

A man is believed to have blown off his hand when a homemade firework exploded while he and another man were trying to make a stronger one.

The explosion happened about 10:50 p.m. Monday in the 3100 block of Southeast Third Street in Blue Springs. Police had received a report saying that several people were injured.

When Blue Springs police and firefighters from the Central Jackson County Fire Protection District arrived at the scene, they found a 21-year-old man with extreme injuries to his left hand and arm. He also injured his right eye.

Another 21-year-old man was also injured along with a woman who was in the home at the time.

The explosion occurred while the two men were attempting to make an improvised explosive device by wrapping multiple sparklers together with electrical tape. The device unexpectedly detonated causing the injuries, police said.

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This is the second fireworks explosion in the Kansas City area in just as many days.

Three people were injured — one critically — after they tried to assemble a massive firework at a Raytown home late Saturday night.

The three had purchased consumer-grade fireworks and disassembled them inside a bedroom to create a more substantial firework, according to Raytown Fire Battalion Chief Mike Hunley.

The explosion happened about 10:30 p.m. Saturday in the 7200 block of Ash Street.

The explosion blew out the bedroom windows, cracked the ceiling and blew the door of the hinges.

A woman was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. She suffered severe burns and was placed in a medically induced coma. A second person was treated for injuries and released. A third person refused medical treatment.

Seriously though, I feel for the injured and their families. I personally think fireworks should be illegal for anyone but the absolute professional. Living in Tampa, Florida has brought me to that bias.

One of the mothers explained to me on the first day that her daughter was in summer school because she had missed so many days during the school year and would be missing some days of summer school for doctor's appointments.

She had blown off part of her hand and burned her arm in a fireworks explosion the previous 4th of July. She was still being treated by a plastic surgeon and had a couple more surgeries coming up.

So I asked the mom if the girl could talk to the class about her injury. The mother was very supportive and brought her son to school to help his sister talk to the class. He had lit the firework as his sister held it.

I'll never forget the looks on the faces of those children while these two kids told them all about what had happened. What a great lesson!

That is a good lesson. Fireworks can be great fun, but leave them to the pros.

that it's not the 2nd graders who are buying these things and lighting them out in the yard.

Another irony...the people who really need to hear about stuff like this...the "adults"... would likely let it go in one ear and out the other. They'll probably get drunk (or not) and light the things up, causing injury or death to some innocent kid(s).

"Hey Johnny, come on over here and watch this!!!"

"No, Daddy...they're dangerous!"

"I said get over here!!!


KABLOOIE!!!


uh, oh...body parts

:(



Innocent kids have no chance against drunk, stupid adults.

What else is new?

"Hey watch this!"

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-03-fireworks-michigan_N.htm

Woman dies in Mich. fireworks accident
Posted 7/3/2007 11:11 PM


MELVINDALE, Mich. (AP) — A powerful firework exploded in the face of a woman trying to set it off, killing her as her fiance and 8-year-old son watched, police said.

Danialle Barse, 27, was unfamiliar with the commercial-grade aerial firework she was using Monday night, said Mike Welch, a police detective in this Detroit suburb.

"She basically killed herself in front her children and her fiance," Welch said.

Barse and another woman were trying to set off a 3-inch mortar bomb in the parking lot of the car wash where Barse worked when it went off as she had her head over it, Welch said.

One round hit the Lincoln Park woman, while the other 25 mortars continued to explode in sequence, keeping rescuers at bay, Welch said.

"The bombs were still going off as I ran up to try and drag her out of the way," witness Jason Dobrovalski told WDIV-TV. "But after I'd seen what had happened, I just ran back to try to save myself because it was too late."

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