4 NFL Fingers and 11 Lives Lost In Last Year’s Fireworks Incidents

by, Robert Box

“Fireworks were involved in an estimated 11,900 injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments during calendar year 2015.”

Last year, we published an article, “With Fireworks, Use Your Head or Lose Your Hand,” just days before two NFL football players blew fingers from their hands in separate incidents with fireworks.

CJ Wilson of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jason Pierre-Paul of the New York Giants both experienced horrendous injuries to their hands on Independence Day, 2015.  Jason Pierre-Paul’s injury resulted in his right index finger and a portion of his right thumb being amputated, and CJ Wilson’s injury left him with two fewer fingers from the mishap, as well as a lost NFL career and a contract worth more than $1 million.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) publishes an annual report that analyzes data regarding nonoccupational fireworks-related deaths and injuries during the previous year –for 2015, data was collected between June 19 and July 19.

Highlights of the report include:

• CPSC staff received reports of 11 nonoccupational fireworks-related deaths during 2015, and calculates an average of 7.4 reports of fireworks-related deaths per year.
• Fireworks were involved in an estimated 11,900 injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments during calendar year 2015.
• Of the fireworks-related injuries sustained, 61 percent were to males, and 39 percent were to females.
• Children younger than 15 years of age accounted for 26 percent of the estimated 2015 injuries. Forty-two percent of the estimated emergency department-treated, fireworks-related injuries were to individuals younger than 20 years of age.
• There were an estimated 1,900 emergency department-treated injuries associated with sparklers and 800 with bottle rockets.
• The parts of the body most often injured were hands and fingers (an estimated 32 percent); head, face, and ears (an estimated 25 percent); eyes (an estimated 16 percent); legs (an estimated 15 percent); and arms (an estimated 4 percent).

The 11 fireworks-related fatalities in 2015 were high compared to the 7.4 who die from fireworks on average between 2000 and 2015, says the CPSC.

A brief description of the 2015 fatality incidents follow, as reported by the CPSC:

• On June 28, 2015, a 47-year-old male from Michigan died of blunt trauma to the back of his head. According to witnesses and officials, the victim placed a consumer mortar type firework—1-1/4″ in diameter and 4″ to 5″ tall—in a tube to light it. The victim lit the fuse and placed the tube on top of his head. The firework exploded, the victim fell to the ground, and was pronounced dead on the scene. The victim had been consuming alcohol prior to the incident.
• On June 27, 2015, a 40-year-old male from Washington State died of multiple blast injuries from manufacturing pipe bomb device(s) using fireworks as a source for explosive ingredients. According to local officials, around 9:00 p.m. on June 27, the victim was in a cluttered unattached garage behind his residence by himself. A loud explosion was heard throughout the neighborhood. A neighbor saw smoke and went to the garage where he found the victim lying prone with major head and hand trauma. The victim was believed to have manufactured a fireworks-based pipe bomb device by stripping the incendiary portion from sparklers, stuffing it into metal pipes, and then attaching a fuse.
• On July 4, 2015, a 22-year-old male from Maine died of a head injury caused by fireworks. It was reported that the victim put a mortar tube on top of his head and ignited the fireworks with a small lighter. The explosion caused a fatal head trauma to the victim.
• On July 4, 2015, a 32-year-old male from Montana died of a penetrating neck injury.  According to witnesses and officials, the victim had been lighting consumer fireworks using a mortar tube.  The victim reportedly lit four shells prior to the incident.  The victim was holding the tube when each shell detonated.  When the victim lit the fifth shell while holding the tube, the firework shot out and struck the victim in the neck.  The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.  It was reported that the victim had been drinking alcohol earlier in the day.
• On July 4, 2015, a 31-year-old male from North Dakota died at his residence from blunt force trauma caused by fireworks. The victim lit the fuse on a mortar/artillery type shell and put it in a launch tube, which was placed on a gravel surface. The firework failed to detonate and the victim proceeded to inspect. According to witnesses, the launch tube either fell over or the victim bent over to reach for the tube when the firework exploded. The shell shot from the tube and struck the victim in the abdominal area. The victim was taken to a local medical center where he died from his injury.
• In the evening of July 4, 2015, a 41-year-old male from Indiana set off fireworks in a parking lot in front of a crowd of roughly 150 people. At about 10:40 p.m., the victim lit an artillery shell in a mortar as the grand finale for his fireworks show. The shell failed to detonate. The victim then went over the mortar and looked down into the tube, when the firework device ignited. The shell struck the victim in the face, with part of the shell casing becoming lodged in his left eye cavity. The victim died shortly after being transported to a local hospital. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
• In the evening of July 4, 2015, a 12-year-old boy from Tennessee was with other juveniles and an “adult” shooting bottle rockets and Roman candles in a neighborhood street. The adult had purchased several fireworks including a re-loadable mortar device with 24 artillery shells. The police believed a shell was fired upside down in the mortar tube, resulting in debris hitting the victim in the chest area near the breastbone. The victim was taken to a hospital where he died.
• On July 5, 2015, a 44-year-old male from Indiana died of blunt force trauma to his head. According to local officials, the victim launched a firework artillery shell from a mortar while holding the mortar tube above his head. The artillery shell blew off the bottom of the mortar tube, and the shell exploded on top of the victim’s head. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
• On July 7, 2015, a 30-year-old male from Texas died of chest injuries caused by fireworks. According to police and witnesses, the victim and his friends had been drinking alcoholic beverages and setting off fireworks for several hours at a fishing area along the Colorado River. The victim held the base-plate of a consumer mortar tube to his chest and ignited the shell using a cigarette lighter. After the firework went off, the victim took several steps back and then fell down. Bystanders attempted resuscitative measures and called 911. The victim was transported to an emergency room, and he died from his injuries later at the hospital.
• On July 21, 2015, a 25-year-old male from Oregon died in a residential fire, which was caused by manufacturing homemade illegal fireworks. While manufacturing the homemade fireworks, the victim apparently ignited explosive powder that led to an explosion and subsequent fire in the dwelling where he lived.
• According to a medical examiner’s report, a 46-year-old male from Florida was shooting off different types of fireworks out of a mortar tube on December 31, 2015 during New Year celebrations. The projectile was supposed to shoot approximately 100 feet into the air from the mortar, but when the victim realized that the projectile was not going to eject from the tube, he did not have time to throw it into the air. The projectile exploded in the tube about one foot away from the victim’s face and chest. A witness stated that the victim started gasping for air and was bleeding from his throat. The victim was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced deceased at 1:15 a.m. on January 1, 2016.

The key message for fireworks safety remains constant from year to year: “Leave the fireworks show to the professionals.”

Safety First Consulting helps businesses identify OSHA compliance issues in their workplaces, manage their safety programs, and we become accountable for the results.  In addition to offering custom written safety programs for companies, Safety First Consulting provides required safety training, industrial hygiene sampling, noise sampling, and workplace inspections.