MARRIOTSVILLE, Md. — With their colorful packaging and the promise of a dazzling light show, Acting Maryland State Fire Marshal Jason Mowbray understands the attraction.
“Fireworks are very enticing. They’re exciting. They’re loud,” acknowledged Mowbray.
But they can also be dangerous, whether it’s a sparkler igniting some clothing or a powerful firework exploding in your hand.
“Well, we’re looking at the area that wraps the fingers around that M-80 before they set it off and this is quite typical of what we see in real life,” said Dr. Ray Wittstadt of the Curtis National Hand Center as he looked at what remained of a mangled, rubber hand attached to a firework that was ignited during a demonstration, “This is an explosion so it’s a lot of force and it could certainly blow fingers off as you’re see here.”
Last year, here in Maryland, there were more than 200 injuries suffered due to fireworks. Some involving the eyes. Others—-the hands, the feet and the fingers.
“As an ER nurse, one of the most devastating things for me to hear when a parent brings a child in or is brought is “Wow. I turned away for a second. Two seconds,’” said Debra Skultety-Robinson of the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, “So the guilt that’s there. You’ll never be able to take that back.”
And in at least two cases in Southern Maryland last year, the mistakes proved to be deadly.
“They had held them too close to their body and there was a malfunction of the firework and it created a lot of traumatic injury to their person and they subsequently died from those injuries,” said Mowbray.
Experts encourage parents to learn which fireworks are legal in Maryland and which are not, to make sure only adults light them and better yet, to attend community fireworks shows manned by professionals as a safe alternative to setting off their own.
