South Florida Personal Injury Blog

Fireworks-related injuries have dropped recently, but Fort Lauderdale accident attorney Andrew Alitowski nonetheless advices parents and families to be extremely mindful when setting them off this holiday weekend. In 2008, there were eight deaths in the United States related to the use of fireworks, on top of 7,000 people who were treated in emergency rooms for their injuries. The statistics do not take into account other injuries, such as more minor burns, which may have been treated at clinics as non-emergency situations. In 2007, Broward injury lawyer Alitowski says that there were 11 deaths caused by fireworks and close to 10,000 injuries. The figures come from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, a federal agency.

The period around Independence Day is always the most fraught with fireworks-related injuries and accidents, notes Fort Lauderdale injury attorney Alitowski. Fully 70 percent of the accidents occur between June 20 and July 20 in a typical year.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has released a list of safety tips for handling fireworks:

• “Never allow young children to play with or ignite fireworks.
• Make sure fireworks are legal in your area before buying or using them.
• Avoid buying fireworks that come in brown paper packaging, as this can often be a sign that the fireworks were made for professional displays and could pose a danger to consumers.
• Adults should always supervise fireworks activities. Parents often don’t realize that there are many injuries from sparklers to children under five. Sparklers burn at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees - hot enough to melt some metals.
• Never have any portion of your body directly over a fireworks device when lighting the fuse. Move back a safe distance immediately after lighting.
• Never try to re-light or pick up fireworks that have not fully functioned.
• Never point or throw fireworks at another person.
• Keep a bucket of water or a garden hose handy in case of fire or other mishap.
• Light one item at a time, then move back quickly.
• Never carry fireworks in a pocket or shoot them off in metal or glass containers.
• After fireworks fully complete their functioning, douse the spent device with plenty of water from a bucket or hose before discarding to prevent a trash fire.”

Florida and other states ban particularly powerful or dangerous fireworks. Remember that only trained pyrotechnics professionals should handle professional grade fireworks, like the kind put on by cities or theme parks.