Some things you should know about fireworks:
 | Taken from the NFPA |
| Injuries: In the year 2003, five out of six (84%) of the 9,300 fireworks injuries reported to emergency departments involved fireworks that federal regulations permit consumers to use (formerly known as Class C fireworks). Total injuries were up from 8,800 from 2002. More than one-third (38%) of the 2003 fireworks injuries that presented in emergency departments were to the head, and half (51%) were to the extremities. About 20% of injuries involved the eyes. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of all injuries were burns. |
| Sixty percent of those injured were age 19 or younger. The highest risk of fireworks injury was to children, ages 5-9, whose risk in 2003 was nine times the all-age risk; in most other years, children ages 10-14 had the highest risk. Males accounted for nearly three-fourths (72%) of fireworks injuries. |
| Fires: In the year 2002, the latest year for which national fireworks-related fire statistics are available, fire departments responded to an estimated 3,000 structure and vehicle fires started by fireworks. Outdoor fires, however, can no longer be sorted by cause, as a result of fire coding changes beginning in 1999. But traditionally, on the Independence Day holiday, fireworks cause more fires in the U.S. than all other causes of fire on that day combined. |
| In the year 2002, fires started by fireworks caused $28 million in
property damage to structures and vehicles. http://www.nfpa.org/newsReleaseDetails.asp?categoryid=488&itemId=24791 http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=3480099 |