QUICKTIME CPSC demonstrates fireworks hazards 747 K / 5 sec. / 240x180 QuickTime movie Please enable Javascript

July 2, 1999
Web posted at: 4:10 p.m. EDT (2010 GMT)

(CNN) -- Just as sure as fireworks will fly on the Fourth of July, news will be reported on July 5 that won't be as pleasant. Someone, somewhere, will be injured, or worse, in a fireworks accident. It happens every year. Just ask Louie Jones.

Now an adult, he'll never forget the Fourth of July when he was 15. "It ignited in my face," says Jones, recalling what went wrong while he and a friend played with Roman candles in his front yard.

Years later, Jones still remembered how scared he was. "I felt my nose, and it wasn't there."

The federal government's Consumer Products Safety Commission estimates that emergency rooms treated 8,500 fireworks injuries last year, about 40 percent of them suffered by children and teens under 15.

'I wish I never lit it'

Jones was severely injured after a Roman candle exploded in his face

Not all such injuries occur during the Fourth of July holiday celebrating U.S. independence. Just ask Matthew Scott.

The 38-year-old paramedic from Absecon, New Jersey, lost his left hand nearly 14 years ago during "a little horseplay" with friends and an illegal M-80 firecracker during the December holiday season.

As a result, Scott became the recipient in January of the nation's first hand transplant. But he'd gladly give up his place in medical history, if he could.

"I wish I never picked up that device and I wish I never lit it," Scott says. "In an instant, my entire hand was gone. It affected not only me, but my family, my friends who were there with me."

At an outdoor news conference in Washington on Thursday, the CPSC demonstrated the hazards of popular, and usually illegal, devices such as sparklers, bottle rockets, M-80s and M-1000s.

The agency, working with the Customs Service, says it has seized more than 400 million unsafe fireworks at U.S. docks since 1988. In an encouraging sign, the CPSC says the number of fireworks injuries has fallen by a third since 1994.

Even so, millennium festivities threaten to reverse that trend, the agency warns.

"As we near the year 2000, more of us than ever before will celebrate with fireworks," says CSPC Chairwoman Ann Brown. "These devices are best left to professionals because even those that seem innocent can cause serious injury."

The Associated Press contributed to this report, which was written by Jim Morris.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.