Fireworks injury roundup

Every year, far too many people are injured are killed as a results of fireworks. Here's a partial list.

In Clark County, Ore., two boys, ages 7 and 13, were injured when they pushed two dozen unlit sparklers in a glass bottle, then added a lit sparkler. The explosion shattered the bottle into shrapnel.

In Farmington, Wis., a private fireworks display hit a 12-year-old boy in the head, sending him to the hospital in critical condition.

In Bennettsville, S.C.,, two children, ages 4 and 6, were injured from fireworks lit by their father in the street.

In West St. Paul, Minn., a teenager was hospitalized when, after fireworks were set off at a party he was at, a man presumably upset over the noise shot the boy with a gun.

In Orange, N.H., a 17-year-old hiker got lost after going up into the woods to see fireworks: he returned on his own the next morning, but another man 25, had to call in rescue helicopters.

In Stuart, Fla., children playing with fireworks started an apartment building fire: the children will enter an educational program.

In Oklahoma City, a vacant former elementary school was burned: witnesses report fireworks going off inside, and teenagers escaping from inside before the fire started in earnest.

In Quakertown, Pa, a teen, 19, who worked for a fireworks company was killed when debris from a shell exploded, hitting him.

It's not just children at danger from fireworks. In Bolton, Mass., two men setting off fireworks were injured when the rocket they lit the fuse of exploded on the ground instead of the air. In Goldsboro, N.C., four people were killed when the truck carrying in fireworks exploded. Near Hancock, Md., a man had to jump out of his vehicle when the fireworks inside it ignited. And in Merrilville, Ind., a bridge people were viewing fireworks on collapsed, sending 50 people into the water and 25 to the hospital.