Fire officials urge safe, legal use of fireworks

The Washington State Fire Marshal’s Office has been reminding state residents to celebrate the Fourth of July safely, and offered some tips:

Light fireworks on a hard, flat, level surface. Don’t lean over fireworks when lighting them. Fireworks may not be used on school grounds.

Only adults should light fireworks. Keep a bucket of water and hose handy. Be sure to read the instructions, and back away 20 feet from fireworks after they’re lit. Keep pets indoors.

When finished with festivities, dispose of fireworks safely: Clean up debris, soak used fireworks in water, then place the refuse in a metal trash can. Spent fireworks can still spark a fire; fires have popped up after users dumped used fireworks in a paper bag or plastic garbage bin.

Don’t take apart or alter fireworks. Homemade or modified fireworks are illegal, and can result in fines and jail time of up to $1,000 or 90 days in jail. Possession of illegal explosive devices is a felony and might also violate state and federal explosive statutes.

The state fire marshal’s office said fireworks-related injuries were up 11 percent in 2015, with 241 injuries reported.

Injury data showed men 36 and older were most often hurt by fireworks.

That year saw 240 fireworks-related fires in the state, which resulted in about $627,000 in damage.

The National Fire Protection Association found U.S. fire departments responded to an average of 18,500 fires annually between 2009 and 2013.

That included 1,300 building fires, 300 vehicle fires and 16,900 outdoor and other fires, the organization said. An average of two people were killed each year.

Fireworks sparked almost half of the fires reported on Independence Day nationwide during those years.

The majority of injuries occur without a fire starting. The Consumer Product Safety Commission found more than half of fireworks injuries each year are to extremities: hand or finger (36 percent), legs (14 percent), and arms (5 percent).

Most of the remaining injuries were to parts of the head (38 percent), including the eye (16 percent of total).

The insurance company trade association encourages people to forgo personal fireworks, calling them inherently dangerous, and it recommended people patronize professional shows instead.

“Each year, thousands of people are injured from using consumer fireworks and some of those injuries are extremely serious,” Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president of outreach and advocacy, said in a news release.

“Even sparklers, which are often thought of as harmless enough for children to hold, burn at 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit and can cause significant injuries.”