How much did you spend on fireworks?

[Link]

Only spent $25, myself. I must say, I'm disappointed in the smaller fireworks. It seems like they don't deliver like they used to. I could have swore that ground bloom flowers went through three colors...

Curse you, TNT!

↓ Pic of mine, my sisters, and her friend's fireworks. $80 worth in total.



Also: I don't get why jacks are illegal in Cali. If you don't know what they are, they look like a firecracker, but they're actually a bunch of small ground bloom flowers. Can't see why they would be more dangerous than a regular ground bloom...

[TylerDurden]

I don't buy or watch fireworks. I watch the finger & eye count rack up with the ER reports...

Almost as brain-damaged as the Turks firing guns in the air. (Bullets do not stay airborne forever.)


Accident at Iowa town's fireworks display hurts 37
By LUKE MEREDITH, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 33 minutes ago

DES MOINES, Iowa - A Fourth of July fireworks shell misfired in a northern Iowa town, sending a fireball skidding down a street into a crowd of spectators and injuring 37 people, officials said Saturday.

Most of the people treated after the Friday night accident in Charles City suffered minor injuries, city fire department spokesman Eric Whipple said.

It appears there was a misfire involving 13 racks of firework tubes during the finale of the city-sponsored show, Assistant Fire Chief Dave Boehmer said Saturday.

Officials didn't yet know why the fireworks malfunctioned, Boehmer said. Inspectors from the state fire marshal's office in Des Moines visited Charles City on Saturday.

"It appears they went horizontally across the ground, some of them," Boehmer said of the fireworks.

Witnesses told the Charles City Press that a large fireball veered toward the crowd gathered downtown on lawn chairs and blankets.

"It was like a bunch of little fireworks just coming toward us," said spectator Emily Watson. "They started to explode. It was just like skating right across the street and then I saw them exploding right in the street here. ... In a split second, it started coming at me."

Brenda Schweiger said she feared for her life.

"My exact thought was, 'This is it, we're going to die,'" she said.

The city of about 7,800 people is 125 miles northeast of Des Moines, near the Minnesota state line.

Police in Riverside, Ohio, said a man lost part of his leg when fireworks went off inside his parked sport-utility vehicle, blowing the windows out.

A 6-year-old girl in Bayville, N.Y., suffered second-degree burns when fireworks landed in her lap, police said. Investigators said it wasn't immediately clear who launched the fireworks but said the child wasn't at a public pyrotechnics display.

A 3-year-old boy in Leominster, Mass., suffered serious burns after his father shot off fireworks that went awry, authorities said. The 37-year-old man will probably be charged with illegal possession of fireworks, police said.

In Port Huron, Mich., a 51-year-old man was critically injured when he was struck in face by a mortar-type firework, the St. Clair County sheriff's department said. Officers said the man was placing the firework in a tube when it ignited.

A pyrotechnics worker in Van Buren, Ark., was seriously injured after a rocket shot through her hand and split it open, authorities said.

[Link]

Oh, man. Mortars. Some stupid late-teens were setting them off at the park last year (there were LOADS of people there; the smoke looked like fog, it was so thick). One of them somehow managed to kick the damn thing over when there was a lit shell in it, and a 30-ft firework explodes 20ft from me. I dun care so much for mortars...

Bottle rockets, however...

Alas: The good stuff is illegal here and I can't get anyone to drive to one of the state borders just to get some. And nobody will ship them here, obviously.

[D-Man]

Every year people seem to get the illegal type and shoot them off. Big bang stuff. Then they set em off right at there house and they rocket up and explode into big fire ball. I know these aren't the fireworks from the little safe and sane huts. Lots of people somehow get them. Must be from over the border or states with no rules. I usually stay inside as those things got too much power. Morons.

[Link]

Yeah, the guys who set them off next to houses in the middle of the summer are total idiots. Find somewhere better to do it. Somewhere where there aren't many houses or plants and stuff. Salt flats, anyone?

I've got a vid of the kind of stuff people have around where I was on the fourth. Give it a minute...

EDIT: Yeah, this is the kind of stuff people were lighting off all over the place. Only this guy had the best ones.



Would have been better if this crap wasn't going on UNTIL TWO IN THE MORNING, not that I'm not usually up that late, anyway.

[TylerDurden]

Best USA Ntl Anthem, ever.

[Drunkskunk]

couple years ago i was lost on a back road on an indian reservation, taking the senic rout out of the rocky mountians to California. I found a gas statiion out there that had a couple wooden pallets of fireworks in the middle of the convience store. this was in like, April. the labling on most was in 3 languages. Chinese, Korean, and Spanish. I left with 4 shopping bags worth for less than $30. I use about a half a bag worth each 4th of july, and I still have some left over.

[EMF]

I wish they were illegal to sell instead of just illegal to use. Every year, people set stuff on fire around here including houses and forests. Millions are spent trying to snuff out the collateral damage from folks that use these things stupidly. Then, the forests are ruined for a generation.

On the news last night 2 peoples houses were caught on fire due to people firing off stuff in an empty field of dry grass. Luckily, this time they caught 'em and they will have federal charges pressed against them.

Not to mention little kids losing fingers etc. It's really strange that this practice is still allowed.

[Eric G]

Not to mention little kids losing fingers etc.

Yep when I was a young teen my friends and I used to throw firecrackers at each other for a stupid kinda lark.Well I kinda got caught up in the moment after lighting one and trying to dodge one that was thrown at me,the one I had lit had a fast fuse and or i wasn't paying close enough attention and it ended blowing up in my hand....OUCH !!!! I luckily still had all my fingers but my index finger and thumb were burned up pretty good.I haven't played that game since. Yeah I know it was stupid but...... To my knowledge they haven't sold firecrackers around here for a long time,fireworks are still sold though.

Eric

[ngocthach1130]

I was in Minnesota for a wedding on July 4th. So we bought about 200 dollars worth of fireworks as dual purposes. Must've burnt them well into 4am. I must say, the neighbor had high tolerances. They don't allow mortar there though. No projectile. So it's just fountain and flame emitting fireworks. I wish we could play with rockets or mortar.

[Dee Jay]

You can get illegal Chinese fireworks in most Chinatowns if you got the hook-ups.

In junior high, I made a gun that shot stones using a firecracker as propellant.

That was MAD FUN

. . . until I started lobbing firecrackers at my buddies like grenades and blew one up on my thumb and index finger! YOWCH! I had a good size blood blister on my right thumb for about a week. That was NOT MAD FUN.

So instead of throwing them, I stuck them in dog shit in the street. Shit-Storms are Mad Fun. My buddy got hit along with parked cars, tee hee! I could not stop laughing. He vowed revenge . . .

That was a cool vid, Tyler. Check this one out.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LHTA8VZGoMs&feature=related


J

Yep when I was a young teen my friends and I used to throw firecrackers at each other for a stupid kinda lark.Well I kinda got caught up in the moment after lighting one and trying to dodge one that was thrown at me,the one I had lit had a fast fuse and or i wasn't paying close enough attention and it ended blowing up in my hand....OUCH !!!! I luckily still had all my fingers but my index finger and thumb were burned up pretty good.I haven't played that game since. Yeah I know it was stupid but...... To my knowledge they haven't sold firecrackers around here for a long time,fireworks are still sold though.

Eric

Eric G: I read your post just now, ha ha!

[TylerDurden]

@deejay
Woot plays real sweet... skilz fosho.

For fireworks, Jaco rules. Saw him a few times before he checked-out: blew the fricken roof off each time.

Here's a patriotic diddy:



and quintessential... @ >200dB

[Link]

In junior high, I made a gun that shot stones using a firecracker as propellant.

Considering that firecrackers are high explosives and not black powder, WOW, I'm surprised nothing bad came of that.

So instead of throwing them, I stuck them in dog shit in the street. Shit-Storms are Mad Fun. My buddy got hit along with parked cars, tee hee! I could not stop laughing. He vowed revenge . . .

"Brown Rage"

(Okami reference)

[Eric G]

In junior high, I made a gun that shot stones using a firecracker as propellant.

LOL...We used to get some 1/2in dia or so copper pipe ~1 to 2 foot long stick them in the ground on a slight angle drop in a lit firecracker and then a marble on top and try to hit a target area .....Firecracker Mortars,sure was fun being a kid way back when.

Eric

[PJD]

Until the United States of amerikkka changes it's ways, I won't be celebrating the 4th of July.

In the redneck suburb I regretfully moved to they go crazy with fireworks. People have been charged with terrorism, with some of the stuff I heard going off, in slightly different situations - like say, if i set an M-80 off on July 4th in front of a recruiting station or the Federal Building.

The fireworks also really upsets the cats.

[swbluto]

I spent nothing on Fireworks here. It doesn't seem like I can buy them unless I purposely go 40 miles out of my way to an indian reservation and, even then, the "Cool stuff" is pretty much illegal where I live. The only thing they really allow is confetti-poppers and snappers.

But, I didn't forget to buy some Fireworks when I crossed into New Mexico during my completely awesome trip of September '07 and stopped by "Phantom Fireworks" near there(It's like a single building near the highway out in the desert. I thought it odd that the single vehicle there, assumedly the employee's, was a H2 hummer. It must be a profitable business.) and picked up some awesome sparklers and some larger firecrackers. I also picked up some safety fuse but I'm thinking I'll just build RC robots to light these things.