Accidents Fireworks Consumer-Homemade

Iowa
Man Making Fireworks Dies after Powerful Blast

2004 -- A northwest Iowa man illegally making powerful fireworks died Friday after the materials ignited, causing an explosion so powerful that it blew off his hands.

``I don't think anyone can comprehend how severe this blast was,'' Lyon County Sheriff Blythe Bloomendaal told The Associated Press on Saturday. ``I haven't seen anything like it.''

Byron Kaiser, 52, of George, suffered serious injuries and was transported to a Sioux Falls, South Dakota hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Kaiser was mixing together gun powder, sulfur chlorate and phosphorous in his living room at the time of the blast, Bloomendaal said.

``What we believe took place is he was mixing it in a metal can, like a peanut can, and then used a metal spoon to stir it. That metal spoon on metal is about all you need to ignite that thing,'' he said.

He described the fireworks Kaiser was making as being in tubes about as round as a half-dollar and about 3-inches long, ``probably ten times the power of a normal M-80,'' a powerful firework illegal in the United States.

Kaiser was apparently making them to use to mark the Fourth of July, he said.

His two children were home during the time of the blast, which blew the windows out of the home and sent shrapnel through the living room walls, but were upstairs and uninjured.

Kaiser lacked the license necessary to assemble fireworks. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which issues the licenses, was investigating how and where he was able to obtain the chemicals.

The State Fire Marshal's office was called in to remove the hazardous materials. Bomb-sniffing dogs checked for any remaining materials late Friday and found none.

Nobody answered the telephone at the home, located on the west end of George, a town of 1,000 in the northwest most part of Iowa, on Saturday.

One neighbor said he was working in his garage at the time of the explosion, which sounded like a hand grenade detonating.

``It sounded like a bomb of some sort,'' said the neighbor, who spoke to a reporter but later asked that his name not be published. ``I had no idea what it was or what he was doing.''

The neighbor said he and his wife had heard ``shots throughout this week that sounded like a good sized 12-gauge or something,'' that he now believes were fireworks coming from Kaiser's home.

July: the Most Dangerous Month?

-- Some aficionados enjoy trying to create their own fireworks. But these creations are even more dangerous and unpredictable than legal fireworks. Because homemade fireworks are often made from parts of other fireworks, they can contain deadly amounts of explosive powders.

In 1999 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported 8,500 fireworks-related emergency-room visits—about two-thirds of these in July. And there's no tally of the countless blistered hands, traumatized pets, singed shrubs, and melted G.I. Joe dolls. Experts recommend leaving the fireworks spectacle to the professionals and limiting your flame-tending interests to the barbecue.

Homemade bomb leaves damage
Two men face charges for setting it off

2004 -- A woman and her daughter came home from celebrating the Fourth of July to find shattered glass covering her living room furniture and floor.

At first, she feared someone had tried to break into her house. Then, she saw the culprit: a pipe, a remnant of a homemade bomb, on her kitchen floor.

"It's a good thing we weren't home and sitting there," she said. "If the pipe had hit us, it could have killed us."

Police have arrested two men in the case. Both men are charged with aiding and abetting the possession of a destructive device and aiding and abetting criminal mischief, a felony and misdemeanor, respectively. One was released on a $1,000 bond on Tuesday.

The womans home was the only property damaged. A 6-year-old girl who lives in the neighborhood suffered an inflammation on her hand, police Capt. said, but did not require medical treatment.

"A piece of this hit her on the knuckle," he said.

No other injuries were reported, despite one witness hearing bits of shrapnel flying through the trees after the explosion, he said.

The woman said she entered her home with her daughter around 11 p.m. Sunday and found the pipe bomb still warm on the floor. Police responded at 11:10 p.m. after the woman called and reported the damage she discovered.

Interviews with neighbors revealed that what police call an improvised explosive device, had been set off about 10:30 or 10:45 p.m. in the street in front of the womans home.

The device appears to have been a metal tube about 8 inches long and 1 1/2 inches around filled with a powder similar to that commonly used in fireworks. It could have been what's commonly known as flash powder or black powder, he said.

"We're trying to put it back together," he said of the device. "We only have a few fragments."

The device was set off with a fuse, he said. It was comparable to what is commonly called a pipe bomb.

"It's basically a grenade," he said. "It appears to be homemade."

He said the powder couldn't be purchased from a fireworks stand, but powder from fireworks could have been emptied into the device. Black powder can also be purchased from sporting goods stores, he said.

Fourth of July celebrations, including legal fireworks, were going on in the neighborhood at the time the homemade bomb went off. Neighbors interviewed later reported hearing the explosion, but police weren't notified until the damage to the house was discovered, he said.

The woman said the explosion tore down part of her blinds and put a small hole in an inside wall.

She did not have an estimate yet on the damage. Her carpet, she said, would have to be replaced because of the glass. She also may need to replace her furniture, she said.

"We don't know if it's going to be something they'll be able to get all the glass out of," she said.

Case Study

A 15-year-old-male was attempting to construct a homemade fireworks device from a short piece of plumbing pipe and raw gunpowder. He sustained a massive blast injury to his left, non-dominant hand. This occurred while the individual was attempting to close the pipe ends and preparing to connect the wires to a battery. The electrical circuit was prematurely triggered and the device detonated while it was being held. The explosion caused traumatic amputation of the thumb, middle, and ring fingers, as well as a fracture/avulsion of the index finger that required subsequent surgical amputation. The small finger was completely devascularized and was severely fractured. Surgical reconstruction of this hand required microsurgical arterial repair with vein grafts and fracture fixation. Secondary soft tissue coverage was accomplished with split-thickness skin grafts. In addition to this extremity injury, the patient suffered severe facial burns.

Cape Canaveral.
Boy Hospitalized After Fireworks Blast

2003 -- A boy is in an Orlando hospital with a wound "the size of a grapefruit" because of homemade fireworks.

Investigators say the two were combining different types of fireworks to make a homemade firecracker. But when the different materials mixed, they exploded. They say he and his 15-year-old brother had actually stuffed leftover legal fireworks into launching pipes.

Police say the device exploded inside the metal pipe and showered the 13-year-old with shrapnel.

The boy suffered a serious shoulder injury in the resulting blast. He was flown by helicopter to the hospital. Police say his brother was unharmed. No charges have been filed.

Boy injured in pipe-bomb explosion.

2004 -- An 11-year-old boy was injured Thursday when a pipe bomb exploded in the back yard of a Loraine Avenue home.

Police arrested a 17-year-old male who lived at the home for possession of bomb-making materials.

The 11-year-old was taken to the emergency room at St. Mary's Medical Center, where he was treated for a 2 to 3 inch gash to his head. The 17-year-old was not injured.

After searching the house, officers found additional pipe bombs inside the residence. The Kenosha County Sheriff's department Bomb Squad was called to the residence to get rid of the materials.

Police were called to the scene at about 5 p.m. for a fireworks complaint. When they arrived, they discovered that the bomb, made of PVC piping, had exploded.

Parents to be wary

-- Detective James Kawakami advises parents to monitor their children because he has seen enough bloodshed in six years as the Honolulu Police Department's post-blast investigator. In the past two weeks, homemade bombs made from firecrackers or fireworks have been exploding around Oahu high schools. On Tuesday, a homemade bomb made from an altered aerial firework was detonated at Farrington High School during school hours. When school officials investigated, they found two bombs already detonated and two which were "live." On Monday, the remains of an exploded homemade firecracker bomb and an unexploded one were recovered from Campbell High School. Campbell High School also experienced a firecracker bomb explosion on Nov. 23. No injuries were reported in any of the three cases, but police are concerned. "It's not my job just to solve cases," said Kawakami, a 29-year veteran of the force. "I do care. And I don't want to see people suffer." Kawakami can't express enough how dangerous bombs made of fireworks are. "This is dangerous, man," he said, adding that it can easily cause death or bodily injury. "It's not a plaything. It's an instrument of destruction." And with fireworks readily available because of the approaching New Year's holiday, he's expecting the worst. "Homemade devices do not discriminate based on color, creed or race," he said. "All it knows is destruction." He said most of the people who make homemade bombs do not direct the blast at any person or organization. They do it for fun, or as a joke. "It's a prank," Kawakami said. "They just don't realize pranks do backfire." And the consequences are often overlooked. The person cannot only be injured or killed, he or she can face criminal charges, be expelled from school or injure someone else. "If you play, you might have to pay one day," he said. "I've been doing this since 1993 and a lot of people have paid." In Kawakami's six years investigating explosions and bombs, he has smelled the freshly burned gun powder, witnessed people after they've been maimed and heard the cries of family members. It's difficult witnessing the anguish a family experiences while watching their child or loved one get their hand reconstructed, he said. Kawakami said he wants to prevent tragedies from happening more than make arrests. The motto he lives by is: "Safety before anything."

Brothers Injured In Fireworks Explosion
Fireworks Reportedly Set Off In Homemade Device

Two brothers are hospitalized after a fireworks explosion at a Livingston County home this weekend, according to the Michigan State Police in Brighton. The brothers reportedly both in their 20s were setting off fireworks in homemade PVC mortars supported by concrete chunks, and one of the bottoms blew out and caused the concrete to explode, police said. This happened around 5:15 a.m. Sunday at a home on Hughes Road. Both men were transported to the University of Michigan Hospital. One brother is listed in good condition, and the other is listed in serious condition Monday morning. The explosion also knocked holes in the garage wall, went through the windshield of a van, and left a 4-foot section of fence blown away, according to police

Pipe bomb made with fireworks explodes

-- A 19-year-old man is in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after a pipe bomb made with fireworks exploded in his hand Monday night, according to a hospital nursing supervisor. An 18-year-old man also was injured in the blast and was treated and released at Harrison Hospital in Bremerton. Other teens at the scene didn't require medical treatment. The explosion happened about 9 p.m. after the 19-year-old pounded on a fireworks-filled copper pipe with a hammer to close it off. In Washington, 142 people were injured by fireworks last year, most of whom were males between the ages of 12 and 20, according to the state Fire Marshal's Office. Nationally, more than 8,500 people are injured by fireworks every year. The pipe bomb that exploded was the second one the teens had made they told firefighters. They had detonated the first bomb on a nearby beach. The 19-year-old man suffered multiple injuries in the explosion. His left thumb and index finger were nearly destroyed, as were the tips of several other fingers. Shards from the bomb tore a hole in his abdomen and cut his left arm and hand. He also suffered burns to his face and hair.

-- PAW PAW There were two survivors in a homemade fireworks explosion near Lawton that killed a 20-year-old woman. Investigators say her husband and her brother-in-law were launching homemade fireworks made of gunpowder, toilet paper, a canister, and propane. Detectives say the canister exploded sending metal fragments everywhere. One of the fragments struck the woman in the chest. She died at Lakeview Hospital in Paw Paw.

-- AMHERST, Ma. 1985. A U of Mass student was injured when a homemade "Roman candle" used to shoot toilet paper rolls out dormitory windows exploded. The student was "apparently packing firecrackers into a small metal trash can and was using the device to shoot toilet paper rolls from the window of the dormitory."

-- PORTLAND, Or. 1985. Police warned that homemade explosives with power equivalent to two sticks of dynamite were being sold to people who probably believe they only are buying large fireworks. These 6 inch long, 3 inch in diameter "fireworks" filled with a pound of flash powder, sold for $25 each.

Student hurt in fireworks accident

-- A 16-year-old student was injured when a homemade fireworks device exploded in his hand before school outside Lowry High School. The teen who made the device that exploded Monday was airlifted to Washoe Medical Center in Reno where he was treated for injuries to his face and hands and released. "It is a very serious offense to bring explosive devices to school property or on school buses," District Attorney said. The youth lit the roman candle-like device about 8 a.m. Monday on the edge of a school parking lot near the football field, police said. One other juvenile was slightly injured by the exploding shrapnel and three others suffered hearing loss in the moments following the explosion. "We initially believed a student had a pipe bomb that had gone off." But after investigating we discovered it was a homemade device that was pyrotechnical in nature, a firecracker designed to put off a flame." The device was apparently made by filling a pipe with some kind of explosive powder, which was ignited with the lit end of a cigarette, said a school district police officer. "It wasn't a pipe bomb. It wasn't intended to hurt anybody," the teen said. "It wasn't intended to be anything other than a fireworks display. It apparently threw out a flame and operated like he intended it to operate and then something went wrong and it actually exploded in his hand."

Son of loyalist victim loses his hand
to firework Explosion 2002

-- The 16-year-old son of a man who lost both his legs in a loyalist attack four years ago has had a hand blown off by a firework in the garage at his home.

The teenager's mother said the youth was alone in the garage, experimenting with fireworks, when an explosion rocked the family home in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, on Sunday night. The doorstep was covered in bloodstains yesterday.

Ambulance staff rushed to the scene and saved the boy's life. But it was too late to save his hand, and he had to undergo emergency surgery.

The teenager was traumatised four years ago when members of a Volunteer Force tortured and beat his father, before blasting him in both legs with a shotgun.

The teenager was himself shot in one leg by loyalist paramilitaries earlier this year. Police sources said that at this stage there was nothing to suggest that the incident was other than a tragic accident.

A senior loyalist from Belfast and a close friend of the family, said The teenager had tried to commit suicide several times after his father was injured and had sworn revenge on his attackers.

The senior loyalist said on one occasion the mother asked him to come to the house where he found The teenager standing at the top of the stairs about to put a noose round his neck.

The Shankill loyalist, who has strong links with the UVF's rival loyalist organisation, the Ulster Defence Association, and is an ally of top UDA commander, Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair, managed to talk The teenager out of killing himself.

"This is an extremely troubled young man, who has never come to terms with what happened his father," said the senior loyalist. "He would talk about getting his own back on those responsible. It is just terrible to think he has lost a hand."

The mother described the incident as "every mother's nightmare."

She said: "He was a wee lad who would do everything for his father so it's heartbreaking this should happen to him. He must have been experimenting, taking fireworks apart, when they blew up. You know kids. You tell them not to mess around with dangerous things, but you cannot stop them."

A loyalist source said the boy's father, was not a member of any paramilitary group, but was unwittingly caught up in an inter-loyalist feud when he gave two UDA men a lift home from the pub in May 1998.

They came upon a UVF leader leaving the home of the estranged girlfriend of one of the UDA men. The UVF man was beaten up and his cohorts took their revenge on the boy's father the next day.

Gunmen snatched him and took him to an empty flat, where they subjected him to a terrifying ordeal. They beat him with poles, made him write a farewell letter to his wife and children, and then blindfolded him as they threatened to drown him in a bath.

Twelve hours of torture later, they shot him as he tried to make a run for the window. Doctors had to pump 200 units of blood into him on his first night in hospital and he lay for six weeks in a coma. Both legs had to be amputated close to the groin.

The family moved from the Glencairn estate in north Belfast to the neighbouring town of Carrickfergus. The father, who still suffers from very bad health, became an outspoken critic of paramilitary "punishment attacks." But the courts denied him any compensation because police claimed he refused to cooperate with their investigation.

In an interview with the Guardian in January 1999, he said: "My wee lads have so much anger. I used to do everything with the boy, swimming, hunting and camping. He says he will get the men who did this to me one day. I tell him to wise up. They have to face God one day."

Explosives Buff Loses 2 Fingers, Thumb in Blast

-- A Riverton man who lost two fingers and a thumb in a blast at his home Friday night was apparently an explosives buff who had amassed a large stockpile of potentially dangerous materials, authorities said. The man, 43, also sustained injuries to his left forearm in the explosion, which he told authorities occurred while he was making a homemade firework. He was treated and released at Jordan Valley Hospital. Agencies including the Salt Lake County Fire Department's Hazardous Materials Team, the Salt Lake Valley Health Department's Division of Environmental Health, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the federal Environmental Protection Agency converged on the man,s two-level, beige brick home at 2883 Victorian Drive early Sunday after obtaining a search warrant. Neighbors were evacuated while authorities attempted to identify and remove the explosive materials, some of which were in unlabeled containers. Two devices were detonated in the home's back yard. "There's chemicals scattered all over the house," said a Phoenix-based spokesman for the ATF. "He's lucky he didn't kill himself." Evidence suggested the man,, an electrical engineer, was trying to make a blasting cap. The man, told authorities he was an "explosives enthusiast," and was assisting government officials in identifying the materials. He also apologized to at least one neighbor Saturday for the inconvenience, nearby homeowners said. Authorities were evaluating possible charges against the man. The Friday night blast occurred inside the home. The man's family, including his children, were also home at the time. Five houses on both sides of the man,s home were evacuated Sunday as hazmat technicians in full safety gear brought materials out of the home. Stacks of fertilizer bags sat on the cul-de-sac. Fertilizer is a source of ammonium nitrate, which can be used in making bombs, officials said. Other materials found included mercury, pitric acid and lead azide, all potentially explosive substances. "This is more than a hobby," "It's certainly quite a large clandestine explosives operation," the type usually not found in residential areas. He said The man was fortunate a second blast did not follow the first Friday night, given the sensitivity of the materials. As of 7:30 p.m. Sunday, the ATF had left the site after turning it over to the EPA, which was expected to handle containment and disposal of the chemicals. Residents were being allowed to return to their homes. Neighbors congregated in yards and on driveways Saturday, watching the operation. None wanted to give their names, but they said the man had four small children and had lived in the neighborhood about nine or 10 years. One woman who was waiting to return to her home said she had no hard feelings about the disruption. "They're taking every precaution and they're making sure they get everything out," she said "And that's OK."