July 8, 2012

AnnArbor.com discusses homemade fireworks with U-M emergency department charge nurse

On July 3, AnnArbor.com discussed the danger and prevalence of homemade fireworks with the emergency department charge nurse, David Stoll, following two recent admits to the U-M emergency department due to accidents with homemade fireworks.

You can read the full article here or see an excerpt below:

A person was admitted to the adult emergency room in U-M’s University Hospital this week with major injuries from a homemade firework, said David Stoll, emergency department charge nurse.

In an attempt to replicate the big bang and boom of commercial fireworks shows like those pictured here, some choose to make their own fireworks at home. Reports of injuries due to homemade fireworks have begun rolling in from emergency room staff.

“A lot of people make homemade explosives,” Stoll said. “They fill a container with gunpowder and put metal pieces or BBs in it. Then they put it in something and try to blow it up.”

Another admission to the emergency room this week was a person who was seriously burned after being hit by a homemade sparkler.

“Someone had taken steel wool and put muzzle loader propellant or something flammable on it and lit it on fire to make a huge sparkler,” Stoll said.

A string had been previously tied to the steel wool, and someone was whipping the flammable bundle around in a giant circle above their head.

The fire burned through the string, and the flaming piece of steel wool flew into someone standing nearby, Stoll said.

Stoll, who has worked in the emergency room for the past decade, said there’s always a rash of homemade firework-related injuries in the week surrounding Independence Day.

He anticipated several dozen patients would be admitted throughout the week and over the weekend.