LAFAYETTE, La. — New Year's is only a few days away, and we all know a fun and traditional way of celebrating is lighting the sky up bright, but something can easily go wrong.
I spoke with Helena Mengel, manager of Louisiana Fireworks in Scott, and Dr. Joey Barrios, medical director at Our Lady of Lourdes Health Burn Center, and they gave me a few tips to share with all of you about how to stay safe with fireworks this New Year's.
Here's what Mengel had to say about what to do if a fire catches from lighting fireworks.
"Well, first of all, you should always water your grass down completely—get it drenched—like a good 24 hours, that way, when they do go off and the sparks do catch the grass, you have your garden hose always ready and available for you and extra buckets of water so you guys can just dump it right on there," Mengel said.
But even more serious than that is the possibility of bodily injury from the mishandling of fireworks.
Medical professionals say the use of any type of firework can lead to bodily harm.
"I see a lot of the ones that have a propellant that shoot them, whether it's a bottle rocket or one of the bigger mortars. That seems to be the ones that give us bigger injuries, but we've seen everything from sparklers to just firecrackers to, you know, the ones that take off that can cause injuries," Barrios said. "We've seen several with sparklers. You know, they think sparklers are not a big deal. They don't blow up. They don't explode. They burn very, very hot, and I've seen them cause significant burn injuries on adults who are trying to light several of them at one time to pass out to kids. It forms what they call a sparkler bomb, basically, and it blows up in their hand, so all of them can be dangerous."
Barrios says they see a definite uptick in burns and injuries, particularly hand injuries, during firework-prevalent holidays, like Fourth of July and New Year's.
Here are the precautions he says you should take to avoid getting injured.
"The safest thing to do is go watch an event somewhere—maybe a local, you know, town that's putting on a show, and let the professionals do it. That's the safest thing. It's usually a better show anyway, but if you're dead set on spending your own money on fireworks and wanting to go blow them up, I recommend adults doing it, as opposed to kids," Barrios said. "You certainly should be wearing eye protection. That is the easiest thing to do. Gloves—some people would think they're bulky, and it's hard to light fireworks with gloves, but certainly wearing gloves would be safer because most of the injuries we see are hand and finger burns."
If all else fails and you do get injured, here's what to do in response to an injury from a firework.
"Certainly anything that's open—any wound that's open—needs to be seen by a healthcare professional at some point. It may not be an emergency at that point in time, but within the next 24 hours or so," Barrios said. "First thing you do is apply cool, running water to cool the injury. You can cover it with, like, an antibiotic ointment—any kind of over-the-counter antibiotic ointment is typically sufficient. If it does blister and the skin peels off, you might want to let someone look at it, either the walk-in clinic or an emergency room. Bigger injuries you're going to want to go to the emergency room, and they usually are going to contact us at the burn center to kind of give further recommendations, and we—we're always available to follow up in our burn clinic with any burn injuries that occur from fireworks."
So, to sum it up:
DO:
- water grass down 24 hours before lighting fireworks
- have a water hose and buckets of water nearby
- leave it to the professionals—go see a show!
- wear eye and hand protection
- have open wounds checked by a medical professional within 24 hours
- apply cool, running water to burns
- cover burns with antibiotic ointment
- visit the ER with bigger injuries
DON'T:
- underestimate ANY firework
- let children handle fireworks
All in all, have fun this New Year's, but always remember to put the safety on you and your loved ones first.
