KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. — It’s firework season as the 4th of July is upon us and the Kanawha County Emergency Management and Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority is wanting everyone to be safe this holiday weekend.
KCEM officials along with the Kanawha County Sherriff’s Office bomb Squad held a firework safety demonstration Thursday at Camp Virgil Tate.
KCEAA Official Mike Oakley said to leave fireworks to the professionals.
“Neither Agency recommends the use of personal fireworks, leave it to the professionals. Please just go to the shows whether it’s in Ripley or Charleston at the Regatta, go wherever the professionals do it,” Oakley said.
Officials did several demonstrations including burning sparklers against wood to show the damage it can do to skin and stuffing a chicken with a mortar firework to show the damage it can do when misused up close.
Oakley said the sparklers can range somewhere between 1,000 to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Don’t allow young children to play with fireworks unsupervised. I was a kid once and we used to throw bottle rockets at each other, which is some of the dumbest things we did as a kid. Children can easily be burned with sparklers and some of these sparklers can even burn through metal,” said Oakley.
Oakley added do not add alcohol with fireworks, only bad things will probably happen.
An estimated 15,600 firework-related Emergency Room visits during 2020, 66% during June 21-July 18 and 71% male, 29% female according to www.cpsc.gov
There were 18 reported fatalities, average age of 36 years old.
Story by Chayce Matheny