Posted on 07/01/2004 9:53:02 AM PDT by 2banana
Girl injured by firecracker at fireworks-safety event
A 14-year-old girl from Olney blew three fingers off of one of her hands yesterday after a firecracker she found at a fireworks-safety demonstration at the Philadelphia Museum of Art exploded. She was playing with the device, police said.
The girl, whose name was not released, was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition. The explosion happened in the early evening hours, sometime before 8 p.m., police said.
The girl was at the museum with her family. Police are still investigating the case.
1. It was not a firecracker if it blew off three fingers - it was something a lot more powerful
2. How did it get there? Did it fall off the table of the safety display or was it left there by someone else?
3. How did it go off? Firecrackers just don't go off by themselves or by playing with them (unless you are playing with them with matches)
4. Didn't anyone listen to the safety course?
This is just the beginning. Out here in the Pacific Northwest there are a lot of Indian reservations selling the really big-bang stuff, which is illegal in this state. One of the busiest weekends for our police scanner with noise complaints and injuries.
In Illinois there are some people who want to ban sparklers because of a few idiots.
Back when yours truly was in high school, I was lighting and tossing some Black Cat firecrackers around with my friends - no, no safety course for us - when one of them burned down a bit faster than the others. It went off as I was about to toss it, but was still holding it with my thumb and first two fingers. Left my fingers numb for an hour or so, but no permanent damage. Of course, I was only holding it with three fingers, so my hand was open - if it had been a bit smaller, like a 14 year old girl's, and I had been holding it enclosed in my fist, with my palm completely wrapped around it, I could believe that it might possibly do some real damage. I don't think I believe that it would blow fingers clean off, but I can see how a regular old firecracker could potentially do some harm...
It's great, isn't it? I love seeing people firing off the real deals from their yards, instead of the Big Government-approved crap. In a small way, it rekindles the spirit of "screw you, government" that got the whole thing started.
I remember for the Y2K party, my next-door neighbor was firing industrial rockets high over the neighborhood for about 20 minutes. Spectacular.
I'll have to see if I can find some of 'em myself.
Does anyone remember people putting tiny firecrackers between their teeth and lighting them. I cannot remember seeing anyone being hurt by them */ but it sure looked scary.
I never tried, perhaps I had a combination to too much fear and common sense.
*/That doesn't mean that it never happened. Just relating what I saw.
When I was stationed at Ft. Lewis in the 80's, we used to go to the Res. to buy the big stuff (mostly mortars). We'd go back to our cabin on Long Lake in Lacey and launch our stuff accross the lake to the houses on the other side (about a 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile). We would be met promptly with a barrage of counter-battery fire from several folks with the same or larger caliber stuff.
How the crap does a firecracker blow off 3 fingers?
I can't even blow up my sons plastic army men with 2.
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