Burn Injury Resource Center
Last week in a town in Indiana, a mother took her small children to a local shopping mall parking lot to watch a few different individuals set off fireworks. This was not an approved event by the shopping mall owner or the local authorities, but we all know that such things happen all the time in towns across the country, and many of us go to watch these events even though they are neither professionally run nor legally allowed.
The problem is, these non-professionals who are setting off fireworks almost never take the proper precautions to ensure that spectators do not get burned. So when one of the people setting off fireworks in that Indiana town last week accidentally kicked over a mortar while he lit the fuse, all he could do was watch as the rocket took off sideways and right into a crowd of spectators.
The result was first-degree burns on the shoulders, neck, and head for one 3-year-old girl. The mother explained that her daughter, along with four of the toddler’s cousins, were sitting on two blankets in the parking lot, along with many other people watching both the legal fireworks being launched at the nearby La Porte County Fairgrounds and the illegal ones being lit in the parking lot.
The mother said the children were holding another blanket above them and pretending it was a parachute when the mortar flew between the two blankets and exploded. She said the blanket on the ground caught fire, and with the help of other relatives, she pulled the children off the blankets, which had large holes burned completely through in the middle.
What’s more, the woman’s 5-year-old niece sustained second-degree burns to a small area on her chest, while the mortar hit her 4-year old nephew in the face. The boy wound up with first-degree burns to his face, chest and leg.
And according to police, a 2-year-old had burn marks on the back of his shorts, while an 11-year-old had a hole in her long denim dress too.
The lesson from this incident? Because fireworks shows happen all summer long, not just on July 4th, adults should take precautions when watching fireworks shows, like staying far away from where the fireworks are bring blown off, and perhaps even carry water in large containers just in case a fire starts around the spectators. If you do this, you will then have plenty of drinking water for a hot summer night once the fireworks are over.
We must also make sure that we inform our children of the possibility of severe burns that come from fireworks, for the times that we are not with them to keep them out of harm’s way. We must give them the right instruction so that the keep themselves out of danger.