The most dangerous fireworks may surprise you

Since it’s too dangerous — even for firefighters — to blow up a watermelon to show the perils of fireworks, Olathe, Kansas, Fire Department officials did some grilling instead.

They lit up a sparkler, the kind thousands of kids will play with on the Fourth of July, and touched it to a hot dog, which in this demonstration stood in for a hand or foot, leg or arm.

The sparks instantly charred the hot dog, leaving black burn marks.

And, it sizzzzzled.

“Sparklers can burn at about 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. That is almost four times your oven temperature when you bake your bread,” said Dr. Dhaval Bhavsar, medical director of the Gene and Barbara Burnett Burn Center at the University of Kansas Health System.

Surprise, Mom and Dad. Sparklers seem like child’s play. But when it comes to the most dangerous Fourth of July fireworks, blowtorch-hot sparklers often land near the top of the list.

Last Fourth of July, sparklers contributed to nearly half of the injuries to 35 people treated by the KU Health System.

“That’s just a brief touch,” said Olathe Assistant Fire Chief Mark Wassom after showing how quickly the sparkler burned the hot dog. “Folks wave them around and might hit somebody else or hit themselves.

“This particular variety also shoots out pretty hot sparks, and you can see them falling there on the block. Those will burn your clothes and skin as well.”

But the most dangerous fireworks of all?

Shell-and-mortar fireworks

A University of Washington study in 2017, the first to look at which fireworks cause the most serious injuries, named shell-and-mortar fireworks the most dangerous. They caused 40% of all fireworks injuries that led to hospitalization of 294 patients studied, and 86% of all fireworks injuries to adults.

Such injuries were mostly to the hands and eyes, including worst-case scenarios — amputations and permanent blindness. Add disfiguring burns and scars to the face, too.

Every year, fire departments and health officials put out safety messages and use shock-and-awe demonstrations about the dangers of fireworks. They counsel people to have “designated shooters,” knowing that people will drink and light up.

They advise leaving the fire power to the pyrotechnics pros, but they know that doesn’t happen because thousands of people land in emergency rooms across the country every Independence Day.

The Washington researchers noted that people think of fireworks injuries as minor, not a big deal and don’t take them seriously.

“I think that it is just so much part of our culture that people want to celebrate the holiday and they always think that this is the way to do it,” said Dr. Hoda Tavalali, an emergency medicine physician at North Kansas City Hospital.

But Tavalali has seen “really horrendous fireworks injuries.” Take last year, for example. One man who bought illegal dynamite “blew it up in his hand, and his hand was completely pulverized into bits and pieces,” she said. Another man got drunk and fell asleep with a lit firework in his hand. It burned his hands and legs when he dropped it in his lap.

Physicians who have seen this damage first-hand draw a hard line when it comes to fireworks.

“Unless you’re a professional, I surely don’t think you need to light off fireworks,” Tavalali said.

Bhavsar said if he was going to be “the Grinch of the Fourth of July,” he would ban mortars outright. Tavalali agreed.

A shell, a ball of aerial explosive, is loaded into a tube — called a mortar — and launches into the air when lit.

“Growing up doing fireworks myself and enjoying it, but then seeing the devastating injuries from it, I feel like if we take the mortar out of the combination of fireworks people can do, we can still have enough fireworks to be available to enjoy the color and the sound of it, but without the risk of significant injury that mortars can do,” said Bhavsar.

Sparklers

To show what sparklers can do to clothing, Olathe fire officials touched a lit sparkler to a white sweatshirt made of 100% polyester. It melted the fabric instantly.

“Where that fabric melts, that can actually melt to your skin,” Wassom said.

In 2019, sparklers were the leading cause of fireworks injuries to children younger than 5, according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

One 3-year-old “was playing with a sparkler that his mother had lit for him. He twirled it around and burned himself,” the commission reported.

“I don’t think a lot of mothers and fathers understand that,” Tavalali said.

They probably don’t know either, she said, how hot sparklers can get — as hot as volcanic lava by some estimates, and hot enough to melt gold, Tavalali said.

Adults “just give them to their children. They give multiples to their children,” she said. “You’ve seen that before where a kid has several sparklers in their hands and they burn down pretty low and sometimes those stems are not as long as they should be.”

Sparklers themselves are not the risk, said Bhavsar.

“It’s just that many a time it’s the little kids doing it. A row of kids are standing next to each other and doing sparklers and one kid just suddenly turns … and that sparkler is gonna cause burn to the person next to them,” he said. “If the kids are doing it, make sure the parents know that it’s a high-risk activity and parents remain involved and make sure that kids are being safe.”

Don’t put ice on a burn

Here are four things never to put on a burn: lard, butter, mayonnaise and ice.

Yes, don’t put ice on a burn.

“If you hold ice on burned skin for longer, it will cause additional damage because now you are freezing the skin, and long-term freezing can cause additional skin injury,” said Bhavsar.

Use cool water (tap water is fine) — never ice water — to cool down the burned area, he said. “The idea is to cool it down to make sure the heat doesn’t penetrate deeper layers,” he said.

Cover the burn with a loose bandage, a clean dishcloth or non-adherent sterile gauze, anything to keep it clean and protect it from further contamination.

If your clothes catch on fire, remove them and anything else stuck to the skin as soon as possible.

And, if you burn your hand, remove your jewelry, Tavalali said.

“People don’t realize how quickly your hands will swell with inflammation,” she said. “You don’t want your wedding ring to get cut off, and we have to do that several times. We hate doing it.

“Make sure to remove your jewelry immediately if your hand is injured.”