JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Firefighters and paramedics shared a warning about common mistakes leading to 4th of July injuries.
The concerns are only growing as new and innovative pyrotechnics enter the market.
News4JAX spoke with local fireworks vendors and the captain of Jacksonville Fire Rescue about this year’s best-selling fireworks and how you and your family can enjoy them safely.
Chris Canonaco with Extreme Fireworks gave us a view of this year’s hottest new items on the fireworks market.
″This is called a Gatlin gun, it pretty much shoots out Roman candles, it rotates the barrels and it’s got reloadable cartridge, it rotates the barrel, and you can recharge it,” Canonaco said.
He said fireworks sales of all kinds are expected to be above average this July 4th, saying most shoppers are waiting right up until the last minute to purchase their pyrotechnics.
″I try to let them know what the difference is between mortars and canisters because canisters come in 5, 6, and 4-inch and mortars are the small ball,” Canonaco said.
Canonaco said he stresses safety to all his customers.
The same advice coming from JFRD Captain Eric Proswimmer. He said he has seen all kinds of firework-related injuries.
“A lot of crush injuries, explosive injuries, fireworks blowing up in hands, whether it blows up on arms, burns to legs, those are the most common things we that we see,” Proswimmer said.
Safety advocates say you should keep a bucket of water or a water hose nearby in case something catches fire. Proswimmer said one of the hidden dangers of July 4th is old fireworks, perhaps from last year, that you may have been saving in your garage.
“When they are in the garage, they are in an environment that is not very cool, in fact sometimes moist, it can degrade them,” Proswimmer said. One of the problems we run into is the wick itself, the wick can burn faster than you used to, which creates an issue because they think I’ve got plenty of time to get away from it.”
Proswimmer also advises not to throw fireworks in the trash can immediately unless they’ve been submerged in water first.
“They throw it in the trash can, and that trash can is right up against the house, and next thing you know we have a house fire.”
Studies found that 66 percent of fireworks injuries occurred in the weeks before and after the 4th of July holiday. The good news is the number of people actually losing their lives to fireworks has decreased from 11 fatalities in 2022, to only 8 last year.