Fireworks

Independence Day here is a fireworks shoot day for many. Most people who shoot fireworks are kids and normal people who like the the old style way to celebrate. They shoot them with caution and have fun. But then there are the mental midgets out there who make simple fireworks weapons of destruction or death. I have a story of one such overzealous fireworks bug who reeked havoc on July 4th.  Mike Tingley a Michigan homeowner attempted to use fireworks to remove a bees' nest from his garage. Maybe he is turned in to ISIS videos too much.

After lighting fireworks shot into the sky from the burning garage and fire trucks raced in futility to save the garage from immolation. "The homeowner was doing something with a smoke bomb trying to get a bees nest out of the garage," said Grand Blanc Fire Chief, Bob Burdette. No one was injured and the fire was contained to the garage and a neighboring fence, sparing the home on the property but not the embarrassment that the homeowner can be destructively stupid. Said firebug Mike, "We really weren't going to celebrate the Fourth of July so much as we just have fun in our backyard, we like to have barbecues, we had a patio back there. It is depressing losing a place where we had a lot of fun, but everyone is safe and that's the main thing."

I think Mike won't have to worry about that bee nest anymore, but building a new garage will keep his mind off the subject. Maybe Hollywood can make a movie about this and Mike can pay for the new garage that way. Anyway, this reminds me of the danger of fireworks and about my many witnesses to it as a kid. Shooting fireworks was a common thing for kids when I was a little brat (as opposed to my big brat status today). From about age 8 onward we kids in my neighborhood shot them recklessly, unsupervised, and survived the ordeal. In that era kids were not so "protected" by adults. It was a better time for kids, I think.

I remember the night I set off a handful of bottle rockets in my left hand by inadvertently lighting them with the lit "punk'  firecracker lighter held in in my right. I was burned quite badly, but ran inside rinsed my hand with cold water and never mentioned it to my parents. In fact after treating the burn, I returned to be with my friends and continued shooting my fireworks. Since we sometimes dared each other to hold the firecrackers until the last second before tossing them, I also had a few discharge in my hand, usually leaving a cut but no scar. I remember one kid in another neighborhood next to mine who lost two fingers when a cherry bomb exploded in his hand. Since we often fired bottle rockets at each other it was amazing no one lost and eye in that game.

Age makes one more inclined to regard shooting fireworks as an act of stupidity. Even fools like me believe that. Since fireworks are not as popular in this country anymore, often being illegal to discharge in many cities and towns, and since many kids live in an electronic world there seems to be fewer fireworks idiots like Mike the garage guy. We no longer have the tradition of kids immolating themselves with fireworks. It is a good thing. those spectacular fireworks shows have taken the place of much of the dangerous individual fireworks activity of the past.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says that on average in the U.S during the month of July 250 people go a hospital emergency room every day with fireworks injuries. The hands, fingers, head, ears and face are the areas of the body most impacted. An estimated 12,000 Americans will seek medical treatment after being injured from fireworks this month. Hmm I think I'll just watch the shows from a distance.