wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (06/25/84)
--------------------------------- WARNING-WARNING This weekend, I was witness to a horrible preventable accident. I saw a guy blow his entire hand off with a 1/4 stick of tnt, lovingly called a 'block buster'. We spent the next hour picking up parts of his hand all over the street and sidewalk. This guy was no youngster. He is 31 years old, married, two kids. He worked in a Pizza Parlor in Brooklyn and was helping a couple of other guys celebrate a soccor victory. They were throwing small packages of firecrackers out in the street, when Nunzio (his name) decided to bring out the big stuff. I was down the block, fortunatly, when Nunzio tried to light his 1/4 stick. The fuse went too fast. His hand was blown right OFF. Now I am no prude about fireworks, and have popped my share, but if anything ever brought the true nature of the dangers involved in playing with this stuff home, it was seeing the stuned look on Nunzios face when he realized what had happened. This poor guy will never be able to work in a Pizza Joint again, his only proffesion. Please, people, don't play with the big stuff. Keep an eye on the kids and don't let them have the big ones. I know it's hard to do, and firecrackers can be fun if they are handled with extreme caution, but the type of thing I saw this weekend has made a believer out of me. T. C. Wheeler
mincher@umn-cs.UUCP (Richard Mincher) (06/27/84)
#R:pyuxa:-83500:umn-cs:1000007:000:1097
umn-cs!mincher Jun 26 14:53:00 1984
I am a member of two pyrotechnics groups (both of which stress safty!)
and I have never seen (personally) such an accident. I have put on many
displays and know several manufacturers. It shows what a little respect
and common sense does to increase safty. I agree completely that the larger,
Class B, fireworks should be handled only by professionals (many pros tend
to shy away from large salutes).
I would like to say that Class C items, when used with COMMON SENSE
AND LABEL DIRECTIONS ARE FOLLOWED, are more safe than most (many) less
controled substances (guns, gasoline, ect.). If a bottle says "NOT TO BE
TAKEN INTERNALLY" would someone actually drink the contents of it?
If a piece of fireworks say "PLACE ON GROUND AND GET AWAY" would someone
hold it in their hand? Think before you light!
Thanks for listening. Have a SAFE AND SANE 4th of July!!
Dick Mincher
U of Mn Computer Center
ihnp4!umn-cs!umn-ucc!rwm
member, Pyrotechnics Guild International, Inc.
member, Northern Lighters Pyrotechincs, Inc.
P.S. Any PGII members out there?ron@brl-vgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (06/30/84)
As a fireman, I have had chance to have seen a presentation by the Police Bomb squad complete with pictures that is enough for me to be safe. I have heard of two Professional pyrotechnic incidents. Last Forth of July some friends of mine were on the roof a building overlooking the area where they were launching a display. At one point the operator dropped his flare and dove at a convenient hole just before one of those really neat starburst things went off at ground level. Hemispherical, because of the location of the ground. The other was that the bomb squad was disposing of two commercial pyrotechnic items. These were the ones that make a lot of noise by throwing quarter sticks of dynamite out of them. Well, they don't trust anything and set them very remotely. The first one went off just fine, but the second one also went off at ground level, chucking dynamite all over the place. -Ron
kirk@ihopa.UUCP (Kevin Kulhanek) (07/12/84)
<....................> I heard of an incident in New Berlin, Wisconsin in which spectators on the ground were injured when the ashes from the fireworks fell on them. The 11 or so people who were hit had eye and burn injuries. The problem was that there was absolutely no wind to blow the ashes away from the crowd. The fireworks display was one of many handled by a reputable firm which had several other displays in the same area that night. None of the other displays had any problems. The company spokesmen stated that even the slightest wind should keep the ashes away from the crowd but in this one incident the total lack of wind caused the ashes to come straight down. Something to think about next year. -- Kevin Kulhanek ..!ihnp4!ihopa!kirk AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il. (312) 979-5308