TAMPA, Fla. — The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates fireworks were responsible for at least 1,900 hundred injuries and 11 deaths nationwide last year.
With the New Year’s holiday approaching, a Tampa Fire Rescue investigator is offering important safety tips to help residents celebrate the holiday safely and responsibly.
Fireworks accidents led to 10,000 emergency room visits in 2022
“Fireworks are a big deal and a big problem when it comes to an urban environment and shooting fireworks in that environment,” said Tampa Fire Rescue Lt. Frank Rosete.
Rosete is the on-call fire investigator assigned to work New Year’s Eve.
He said if the past is any indication, he’ll be busy.
“I personally go on at least four to five calls related to fireworks,” he said when asked what a typical year looks like in Tampa.
Rosete said most of the fires and injuries his department has responded to in the past are preventable.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 10,000 people were treated in emergency rooms for fireworks injuries nationwide last year.
Of those, 600 were burned by sparklers.
“Adolescents 15 and under are the most injured from the sparklers because they run around. They play sword fights with each other,” Rosete said.
“We could have lost him”
Other injuries were caused by people re-lighting fireworks that didn’t ignite.
“The time you decide to reignite it could be the time it decides to explode,” Rosete said.
That happened to a man in Dade City in 2019.
“We could have all lost him last night over a firework,” the accident victim’s girlfriend, Ashley Nicholls, said at the time.
He was seriously injured after lighting a firework he found on the side of the road.
“He lit it, and it blew up in his hand. He blew his thumb off. He broke his finger,” Nicholls said.
Rosete said if you plan to launch your own fireworks, have a fire extinguisher or bucket of water close by.
And he reminds people that drinking or drugging and explosives aren’t a good combination.
“Kind of like a designated driver, have a designated shooter. That he or she is not gonna be under the impairment of an alcoholic beverage,” Rosete said.
Leave it to professionals
Rosete said it’s always better to leave something as dangerous as fireworks to those who really know what they’re doing.
“There is opportunity to go see fireworks at a professional shoot versus you trying to do it at home and run the risk of injuring yourself or others or burning your property down,” he said.
Here are some important fireworks safety tips for you to consider if you plan to shoot fireworks this New Year’s Eve.
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