While fireworks provide momentous entertainment, there are obvious inherent hazards. While parents keep young children away from fireworks, older children are often trusted to know better. Parents of school aged children and teenagers need to consider the dangers of fireworks and make sure they talk to older children about the dangers of fireworks. As we all know, as kids get older, there need to declare their own independence. They test limits. They get bolder as they get older. Often, teenagers believe they are practically adults and want to try adult activities such as drinking, smoking and sex. In this same vain, teenagers take more risks with fireworks. I’ve had a personal encounter that made a mark on my childhood.
When I was 9 years old, my 14 year-old brother had friends over to play his new video game on INTelevision. One of the boys, trying to be cool and impress his friends, brought over some 300 bottle rockets, stuffed in his Members’ Only jacket. He had secretly raided his parents supply of fireworks and wanted to show off.
The other three boys (my brother included) were too excited about the video game to pay attention to the fireworks. So, this 14-year old boy decided to try things out by himself. There were no Coke bottles around the kitchen, so he decided to try the bottle rockets without the bottle. There was no lighter in the house either. So, this boy lit a candle on the gas stove and took it outside.
Once he was on the driveway between the two houses, he pulled one of the bottle rockets out of his jacket. He lit the bottle rocket in an erect position. The bottle rocket went up into the air, but looped over his head and came back toward the ground at a side angle, landing right in the pocket of his Member’s Only jacket. He set himself on fire and bottle rockets were exploding while they were tucked inside his jacket.
One of the video game players heard his screams and came running out to see what was going on. This brave boy did the only thing he knew how to do – Stop Drop and Roll. He tackle the emblazened boy down to the ground and kept rolling him and rolling him until the fire extinguished.
I did not witness this firsthand, however, I saw the emergency personnel transporting him to the back of the ambulance. I was walking home from school. I did not see the boy directly but I heard he had 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over his torso, face, head and arms. He needed several surgeries and skin grafts. His face and body badly scarred.
While not every teenager engages in risk-taking behavior, the teen years are a time for declaring independence from parents. Just a reminder about the dangers during the summer months.
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