Fireworks are an age-old tradition for Independence Day, and many, although not all, consumer fireworks are legal to own in Kentucky. That being said, fireworks produce a lot of, well, fire and can be extremely dangerous if you aren’t careful.
“While it is a great American tradition to enjoy fireworks around the Fourth of July, it is important to remember that all fireworks, even sparklers, pose dangers to consumers. The safest way to view fireworks is to watch professional displays,” said Alex Hoehn-Saric, chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, in a press release. “If you choose to light your own, make sure you only buy legal fireworks intended for consumer use from a reputable retailer.”
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is the federal agency responsible for tracking data on product-related injuries in the United States and advising on related best practices. As such, the agency tracks injuries related to fireworks every year.
According to the agency’s 2023 fireworks report, eight people died as the result of fireworks and nearly 9,700 injuries were estimated to have occurred as a result of fireworks last year. Moreover, data between 2008 and 2023 shows an overall increase in firework injuries during that time period.
A safety video from the agency contains a brief interview with a man named Mike Spencer, who suffered an injury after lighting a mortar-style aerial firework and holding in its cylinder over his head. Rather than launching out of the cylinder like it should have, the firework exploded in the tube.
“When the mortar shell exploded, my hands folded over backward,” Spencer said. “These were legally-purchased fireworks, I had used them in the past, and I’d had plenty of experience with them for years and years of shooting them and had never had anything go wrong.”
The incident left him with several missing fingers.
Fortunately, there are a handful of best practices from the Consumer Safety Product Commission, local NKY fire departments and government agencies, many of which have already released safety tip sheets on their social media pages, when it comes to staying safe with fireworks. LINK nky has compiled some below:
- Children should never handle fireworks. Full stop. This includes even smaller fireworks, like sparklers.
- Only purchase and use consumer fireworks. Larger, professional fireworks for public displays aren’t meant to be handled by non-professionals. Consult the relevant section of Kentucky state law, under the “fireworks” heading, to view what does and doesn’t count as a consumer firework.
- Keep a reliable water source, such as a running hose or large buckets of water, nearby to put out fires if they occur.
- Don’t relight fireworks that fail to go off. Let them sit for 20 minutes before dousing them with water and disposing of them.
- Refrain from drinking or using drugs while setting off fireworks.
- Set off fireworks only on private property and away from vehicles, structures, containers or anywhere else a fire might spread.
- Don’t point or throw fireworks at others.
- Follow your local laws. Even though the state allows for many consumer fireworks, cities often have their own ordinances governing when, how and what kinds of fireworks are allowed in the city limits.
Newport Police Chief Christopher Fangman in a video addressed to city residents encouraged everyone to generally be respectful on the holiday, in addition to giving some of these safety tips.
“Really the spirit of what we’re looking for is being a good neighbor,” Fangman said.
After giving some advice, he added, “Just don’t go out of your way to make things harder on people on a day that supposed to be for celebration.”