Explosion at Fireworks Facility in Roswell, NM Injures 12
Twelve firefighters were injured in an explosion at a fireworks facility in Roswell, NM on June 5. Jeff Stroble, 46, and Robert “Hoby” Bonham, 36, suffered critical injuries from the blast, which occurred as the crew was boxing up fireworks for a scheduled Fourth of July show. They were airlifted to an area hospital for treatment of their injuries, the other 10 firefighters were treated at the scene.
The fire that followed the explosion sent a towering plume of smoke into the sky. Authorities don’t yet know what caused the explosion. An investigation by state and federal agencies is ongoing.
Injuries from Fireworks
A 2013 report by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, fireworks injured 11,400 Americans in 2013. Sixty-five percent of these injuries occurred around the Fourth of July. About 57 percent of those injured were male. Children under 15 accounted for 40 percent of all injuries.
About 2,300 of those injured by fireworks visited the emergency room. More than half of them were people under 20. Most of the injuries were for burns.
Hands and fingers were the body parts most frequently injured (62 percent), followed by head, face and ears (22 percent); eyes (16 percent) and legs (14 percent).
In addition to these injuries, fireworks start thousands of fire each year, 15,600 in 2014, according to the National Fire Protection Association. These fires resulted in about 30 injuries.
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