Fireworks A Holiday Threat BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD (wypr) - Colorful sparks, crackling sounds and loud whistles are all a part of the fun of the Fourth. But, there is a dangerous and deadly side to some of these fireworks. They can cause severe burns, eye injuries, the loss of fingers and hands, and sometimes, death.
Patrick Fromm is a manager at a fireworks stand in Baltimore County. He says he knows what it's like to get burned by fireworks.

When I was a kid we had sparklers, the standard, you light them and then they sizzle down metal things. Instead of having a bucket to put them in we just left them on the ground and I walked over one and got a pretty bad burn on my foot.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, in 2007, about 10-thousand people in the United States were hospitalized for firework-related injuries. Eleven of them died. Maryland state did not have any figures available for last year, for injuries or fatalities. Richard Green, captain in charge of the Fire Marshal's office in Baltimore County. He's seen a lot of fireworks mishaps.

I've also seen people that have actually blown their hands off that have illegal fireworks, the M-80 type fireworks. Basically, just messing around, not paying attention and they just go off in their hand. The most common type of injuries are eye injuries from the sparklers. Even children playing with sparklers, they don't even realize the sparks are very hot and they come off and they go in their eyes.

Dr. Dean Fiergang is a pediatric eye doctor in Baltimore. He advises people to wear safety goggles to help prevent firework-related eye injuries.

The biggest problem you'll see is the bottle-rocket injury. Bottle-rockets fly very erratically, they can cause terrible blunt trauma or even penetrating trauma to an eyeball. And from what I understand, what I've been told, people will engage in bottle rocket battles, where they actually point them at each other and shoot them at each other, back and forth.

Bottle rockets are against the law in the state of Maryland. Captain Green, says that illegal fireworks cause the most injuries.

Anyone caught with illegal fireworks, illegal is anything that propels in the air or makes a bang for the most part. Anyone caught with discharging illegal fireworks or even in possession of illegal fireworks there's a 250-dollar fine for each device that's found.

Timothy Diehl, Battalion Chief at Howard County Fire and Rescue, says it's important to take precautions even when using legal fireworks, because they can malfunction.

You want to be careful when you use them, you want to set out a distance, you don't want to have them too close to your home, you don't want to have them too close to combustibles, the pop-up tents, make sure that those are away, because actually you can have the showers of sparks and they could fall on the tent, so you have to be careful of that and keep your distances.

Sherry Llewellyn, public affairs director for the Howard County Police, says that ground-based sparklers are illegal in that county because they pose a significant safety risk.

There was a case where the ground-based sparkler was placed inside the mailbox, and ultimately resulted in police response, fire department response, bomb squad response until we knew what we were dealing with, and that's not the way we can best use our resources.

According to Captain Green, all fireworks are against the law in Baltimore City, as well as Montgomery and Prince George's counties, but they are legal in Baltimore County.

I'm Farrah Childs, reporting from Baltimore County, for 88-1, WYPR.
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