Florida Man's Hand Blown Off by Firework on July 4th Weekend

[PJMcK]

What a great headline! Here's the story from The Daily Beast:

It just wouldn’t be Independence Day without harrowing firework accidents. A man in Florida lost his hand in an accident involving fireworks on Saturday morning. The incident, which took place in Lauderdale Lakes at around 1 a.m., left the victim needing urgent hospital treatment. “It wasn’t even like five minutes, ‘cause as soon as he lights it, it exploded,” one witness to the mayhem told 7News. In a peculiar detail, the report added that the injured man was taken to hospital in a private vehicle while his hand was taken to the hospital by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue officials. Witnesses added that doctors were unable to reattach the man’s hand. “They couldn’t do nothing,” one said.

That's the whole piece but here's the link anyway:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/florida-mans-hand-blown-off-by-fireworks-on-july-4th-weekend?ref=home

Last year, I read a story about an expectant father in Pennsylvania who was planning their "gender reveal" party that would culminate in a pyrotechnic display announcing whether their baby was going to be a boy or a girl. The day before the party, the father and his brother were setting up the fireworks when something went wrong and they exploded killing the father and seriously injuring his brother. Now the baby (we never did learn its gender) will grow up fatherless. Sort of a Darwin Award winner except that he'd already reproduced. I hope the child learns more sense the its progenitor.

Why do people fuck around with explosives? They're really dangerous, just like a loaded gun. Oh, wait...

[SheltieLover]

1. Flori-duh man

Covidiot, I have no doubt!

[BlackSkimmer]

13. You know all that, do you?

Fascinating.

[PJMcK]

32. Does it matter if he had Covid?

The guy was an idiot because he was fooling around with explosives without understanding their inherent danger.

SheltieLover may be wrong about this "handyman" but the fool is still an idiot for messing around with what is essentially dynamite.

In any event, he blew his own hand off! Can anyone defend this as an intelligent act?

[BlackSkimmer]

33. Well, you completely missed the point there, but ok.

I hate fireworks, and nowhere did I say it was an intelligent act.

[PJMcK]

36. Actually, I understood your snark

It's a bit of a stretch to assume the victim wasn't vaxxed. I got that.

I think what the poster was implying was that "Florida Man" is obviously an idiot. It's not that much of a stretch to assume that he's made other similarly poor judgments in his life, like supporting Trump or not addressing his own healthcare needs.

In any event, I hope you had a safe and happy weekend, BlackSkimmer.

[Celerity]

42. Odds are high (as it was in Lauderdale Lakes, 95% PoC) that he was likely either black American or

Afro-Carribbean (usually Haitian there in Broward) or West Indian.

[BlackSkimmer]

43. Don't get in the way of assumptions now.

[scarletlib]

2. It's a Florida holiday tradition.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. Sparklers should be the ONLY legal firework.

Edit to add: GET OFF MY LAWN!!

[Chainfire]

7. The kinds of fireworks that can remove a hand are illegal in Florida

for most citizens. If it flies or bangs, it is prohibited from sale. Law enforcement generally turns a blind eye to use of fireworks. When I lived in Miami, the cops that lived in my neighborhood (and there were several) had extravagant fireworks displays on the street on the 4th. They did not exercise much judgment, probably due to the accompanying consumption of alcohol. I took my kids back inside after I saw a big rocket go astray and go off underneath a parked car and watched other flying, burning objects, hit the roofs of people's houses.

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. ...

[ProfessorGAC]

23. They're Illegal Here In Illinois, Too

But, there's plenty of them here anyway.
They're legal in Indiana, and the state line is around 40 miles away.
There are fireworks stores the size of a supermarket within 3 minutes of the state line.
So, making them illegal doesn't accomplish much.

[LeftInTX]

28. They aren't in Texas..let the show begin!

Fireworks are illegal in the city limits because a girl was killed by a bottle rocket in the early 90's, but the illegal shows have proliferated and the cops don't do anything.

However, due to ongoing drought the county and surrounding counties have temporarily banned the sale of bottle rockets and missiles this year.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/texas-fireworks-ban-17255560.php

I gotta admit, the illegal fireworks put on a really good show around here! It's a New Year thing here though probably because July 4th is so darn hot.

Look at the illegal show!
I am a law abiding citizen and don't waste my $$$$$, but I bet even the donut guys love this show!

&ab_channel=KENS5%3AYourSanAntonioNewsSource

Gets crazy at the 1:58 mark

?t=128

LOCAL NEWS
No citations issued for illegal NYE fireworks despite more than 1,000 calls to hotline..

[Novara]

10. I fuckin' agree

My neighborhood sounds like a fucking war zone this time of the year and on New Year's Eve. I wish they'd blow their dicks off.

I don't get the point of loud booms just for the sake of loud booms and I wish to hell my state didn't allow high powered fireworks. I understand the pretty fireworks in the sky. I get that. I don't understand bombs.

And my cats are terrorized by them.

Last night the fire trucks were responding all over the city and people were still setting them off. It's been hot and dry and I am constantly worried about fire. It's usually not this dry here and people have no clue how to be cautious.

[Ferrets are Cool]

12. IKR?

Unfortunately, when they run out of fireworks, they start shooting the guns.
If they didn't have the fireworks at all, I'm sure the guns would begin earlier (at least here where I live).

[Novara]

14. Oh yeah, the guns

Found a .22 bullet wedged in my deck a couple of years ago. If I was a physicist I could determine where it came from using the angle, trajectory, amount of compression to my deck, and weight of the bullet but alas I am a chemist, not a physicist.

It sailed over my roof and landed in an area of my deck where I like to sit.

[Ferrets are Cool]

15. We had our roof replaced two years ago and they found

three bullets in it.

[Novara]

16. I'm not surprised

And you, like me, probably don't live in a sketchy area.

But bullets travel and what comes up, eventually comes back down. Usually somewhere else.

[PJMcK]

34. Here's a personal story about sparklers

When I was very young, about 2 or 3 years old, my parents took me to a Fourth of July party at my great-uncle's and great-aunt's house in Wisconsin, where I was born. As part of the celebration, they had really big-- 3-feet long-- sparklers surrounding their in-ground swimming pool. Apparently, I thought they were pretty and grabbed ahold of one while it was burning. I'm now 64 years old and I still have a scar on my hand from that experience.

Thankfully, I don't have any memory of the painful and dangerous event but to this day, I don't play with fireworks.

Sparklers are really dangerous, too.

[Tetrachloride]

4. Pyromania can affect any family.

[multigraincracker]

5. Danger, excitement and

death, they all go together. Now, wants to jump out of a good working airplane?

[PJMcK]

35. "Hold my beer!"

Thrll seekers can be really foolish, eh?

[Blue Owl]

6. The bloody stumps of July 4th

[Joinfortmill]

8. Horrible

[Emile]

11. Incidents like this usually involves alcohol consumption.

[callous taoboy]

17. Anyone remember M-80's?

They were like tiny sticks of dynamite. I used to buy them back in the 70's.

[PJMcK]

18. I do

One of my junior high school classmates blew of one of his pinkies because he held onto the firecracker a second too long. It was gruesome.

M-80s were about 3/4" in diameter and had a thick fuse sticking out the side, if I recall. They were far more powerful than the "Ladyfingers" that came 24 to a pack. One idiot in my neighbor hood built a gasoline bomb fired by an M-80. It blew a 12" crater in the ground. Foolish.

I don't like amateur fireworks and I don't like guns.

[fightforfreedom]

29. I remember, I had some friends handle them like they were firecrackers.

They were lucky they didn't lose their fingers or hand.

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Yeah, But No

The "M-80 is a 1/3rd stick of dynamite" thing is a myth.
And M-80 had 3 grams of flash powder, which contains 3 million joules per killogram, or abput 9,000 joules.
Real dynamite releases around 4,200 joules per gram and most commercial grades have 25 grams of active detonating agent. About 11x an M80
Plus, the rate of detonation is 25x that of gunpowder creating a supersonic shock wave.
A third stick of dynamite would be WAY more dangerous than an M80.

[Sympthsical]

46. Recently, someone was lighting them off in the area with a drone

I don't know how the guy set the situation up. But he jury rigged some kind of system that would light and drop M-80s from the drone around the neighborhood. Basically to fuck with his neighbors.

The police were less amused when they tracked him down and arrested him.

It was all over my NextDoor for about a week. I'd be like 95% pissed, 5% impressed at that point.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. I am very confident we are first in the nation in this. Florida pride.

Link to tweet

[LeftInTX]

24. Texas isn't first?

[BlueIdaho]

20. Darwin Awards Contender. nt.

[PJMcK]

21. Yeah except he already procreated (n/t)

[BlueIdaho]

22. Such a pity! nt.

[sarisataka]

49. Here ya go...

11-year-old boy dies after fireworks incident in Indiana

[Quixote1818]

25. Doesn't sound like it was his fault if the thing blew up right when he lit it. nt

[TheCowsCameHome]

26. I hope he kept his sales slip.

He may be entitled to a full refund.

[onethatcares]

45. Here in Florida

you have to sign a release that states something about using the fireworks to deter birds from bothering crops. I never realized there was such a problem with them here in St Petersburg.

[Sympthsical]

47. We have air cannons for that sort of thing

I never knew those were a thing until some local vineyards started doing it in the middle of the night one time to keep birds away from the grapes.

It sounds just like cannon fire. When you wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if the Revolutionary War broke out again.

[onethatcares]

48. we have backyard gardens

and community garden plots.

i never realized birds were such a problem here.

[fightforfreedom]

27. I bet that hurt.

[Chautauquas]

44. Exactly what I was going to say!

[jcmaine72]

30. Could have been worse.

If he was holding that firework with two hands at the time it exploded, he'd have to learn how to wipe his ass with his feet.

[Johnny2X2X]

37. Just dumb

Fireworks are definitely fun, but I wish more people knew just how harmful they are in terms of the harm to pets, wild animals, the environment, and people's safety.

I didn't get it until I knew a dog that was basically hiding under the bed trembling for an entire moth each year. And the wild animals in our neighborhood are hiding or running scared as well. Then we'll be picking up the litter generated by fireworks in our neighborhood for the rest of the month. Not to mention there are disabled people, and disabled veterans who are traumatized every year by the explosions.

It's just stupid and something that needs to go away.

[maxrandb]

38. Hopefully, it was his trigger hand.

May he never masturbate again

[Jennike]

39. Men outside Florida had fireworks injuries this weekend too

But the media think it's cutesy and trendy to pretend that Florida men suffer accidents and do crazy things at a higher rate than people in other states.

And people love to play along because it's a trendy social media thing that you can share.

[PJMcK]

40. It's not just Florida

I was snakily amused by the headline of the story I posted since it started with "Florida Man."

We're in the Catskill Mountains in PA and there were a couple of dozen fireworks accidents in nearby counties yesterday. Stupidity isn't governed by state lines, obviously.

Fireworks are explosives. They're dangerous. Anyone who doesn't understand that is an idiot.

[FSogol]

41. Hey Florida Man, if the shoe fits.....