Safety Video from National Council on Fireworks Safety
Confiscated Fireworks
If you’re middle-aged like me, you probably grew up playing with bottle rockets, sparklers, firecrackers and even some custom made contraptions, on or near the Fourth of July.
Things have changed. Fire isn’t any hotter, or human flesh any less fire resistant, but things have changed in the associations between neighbors, friends and local authorities.
Like most reasonable people, I realize that fireworks themselves are not anymore dangerous than a standard book of matches. It’s dangerous behaviour that causes injuries.
We would like to offer some warnings and a video to watch that might help you plan a safe Fourth of July holiday where fireworks are involved.
- In 2006, fireworks caused an estimated 32,600 reported fires, including 1,700 total structure fires, 600 vehicle fires, and 30,300 outside and other fires. These fires resulted in an estimated 6 civilian deaths, 70 civilian injuries and $34 million in direct property damage.
- In 2007, U.S. hospital emergency rooms treated an estimated 9,800 people for fireworks related injuries; 56% of 2007 emergency room fireworks-related injuries were to the extremities and 36% were to the head.
- The risk of fireworks injury was two-and-a-half times as high for children ages 5-9 or 10-14 as for the general population.
- On Independence Day in a typical year, more U.S. fires are reported than on any other day, and fireworks account for half of those fires, more than any other cause of fires.
Source: NFPA’s Fireworks report, by John R. Hall, Jr., June 2009
Yes, it is sad that we can’t enjoy the great fun this Fourth of July that we traditionally enjoyed in years gone by, but the greatly increased population, as well as the propensity for litigation from bystanders, friends, neighbors and yes, even family requires us to display different behavior than we did back when parents watched over their children more closely.
Many of today’s children practically raise themselves: between watching TV and traveling all over the neighborhood unsupervised, there is a real danger that you may be inadvertantly involved in injuring a child. Some possible scenarios include one of your airborn incendiary fireworks landing in an unplanned yard where small children are playing. Or maybe an uninvited child runs into your yard while you are lighting some fireworks.
Back when judges used reasonable processes for making judgements and parents knew where their children were, we were all much safer from both injury and prossecution. But in today’s litigous society, if one doesn’t take care deliberatly to have fun in an environment of safety, it’s not too far fetched to imagine being sued for damages for something as harmless as your annual neighborhood pic nic.
Watch the following video on fireworks produced by The National Council on Fireworks Safety. And then make yourself aware of your local laws. They may have changed since you last checked.
