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Fireworks mishaps that happened to you
dpmule
Member Posts: 6,653 ✭✭✭✭
I am probably like many others on here that have done things we should not have with fireworks of the store bought or various homemade versions, let's hear about some, I'll start with my last one a couple years ago.
Out back of the house, holding bottle rockets in my fingers and shooting them in various directions. wife wants to join the fun, but she uses a pop bottle, when the sparks hit her fingers she * toward me and I was approx 30 yds to her left looking away from her. The rocket shot, hit the brim of my cowboy hat, the back of my head and detonated in my shirt collar, stung like * and scorched some neck hairs otherwise no damages. You should have seen the look on her face, she wouldn't shoot anymore that weren't out of a staionary, secured launch tube.
Out back of the house, holding bottle rockets in my fingers and shooting them in various directions. wife wants to join the fun, but she uses a pop bottle, when the sparks hit her fingers she * toward me and I was approx 30 yds to her left looking away from her. The rocket shot, hit the brim of my cowboy hat, the back of my head and detonated in my shirt collar, stung like * and scorched some neck hairs otherwise no damages. You should have seen the look on her face, she wouldn't shoot anymore that weren't out of a staionary, secured launch tube.
Comments
same cousin backed into me and put a lit punk in my eye on accident.
needless to say, I no longer hang around him when on 4th of July.
Another thing is the fireworks store guy told me what I COULD safely hold in my hand to shoot... I got a smoke bomb that was a large tube he showed me, I held it, lit it, two mins of smoke or so ... Well, it blew up in my hand. That was MY bad.
man, cats sure can run fast![B)]
personally, i thought it was funny...my dad didn`t though...and he could hit hard with that belt of his[xx(]
My cousin,('ol baggypants), caught one in his back pocket.
Prolly STILL got a scar on his *. lol
[;)]barto[;)]
Stay focused and never, ever smoke in powder rooms! [:D]
Luck plays no part in not being blown up. [;)]
AT
I would swing by a fireworks stand on one of my trips through Tennessee, and pick up a big stash of fireworks.
The mainstay was the bottle rocket. I would buy 8 packages of these. Each man was issued a gross, 144 bottle rockets.
We made bazooka tubes out of a 3 foot section of one inch iron pipe.
You would light the rocket and drop it down the tube. You had a second or two to aim it, at 20 feet or less you had a pretty good chance of hitting the enemy, even on a head shot it really didn't hurt much.
You had to wrap the pipe with newspaper and duct tape, otherwise, after firing a couple dozen bottle rockets in 10 minutes, the metal got so hot it would burn your hand.
Also, each troop got a dozen Roman candles.
That was fun, 4 men on each side, running around in a field, drinking Jack Daniels in the dark and shooting each other with bottle rockets.
We mandated eye protection. Other than minor burns, the only danger was getting your eye put out. We would not allow somebody into the war if he didn't have eye goggles.
We had had 3 or 4 wars, we would do them once a year, always had a lot of fun.
One year I decided to spice things up. Besides all the bottle rockets and Roman candles, I bought a couple dozen three inch rockets.
These were just like bottle rockets, but the powder charge was 3 inches long. A bottle rocket on steroids.
Each troop was issued 3 of the big rockets.
In the next battle, I was running around, in the smoke and noise of battle, and I saw Paramedic Billy, kneeling down 5 feet in front of me.
He had a 3 inch rocket aimed right at my head.
I saw the flash as the rocket ignited. The rocket hit me right between the eyes! I saw stars, the damn thing nearly knocked me out.
I sustained a 1/2 inch cut on my forehead.
In a minute, I knew something was wrong. My goggles were filling with blood.
I had to call time out, get a bandaid for my cut and clean all the blood out of the goggles.
After that, we outlawed the use of the 3 inch rockets.
Once I was launching those two stage outerspace lanes. You know the ones that look like a giant pill/capsule with wings. They're supposed to spin and fly straight up. Well this one didn't all the powder went off at once like an M80 on steroids. Everyone was hit with plastic debris fortunately only minor scratches.
I gained a lot of respect for fireworks that day, but it didn't stop me from doing some less than intelligent stunts myself.
...A bunch of friends and I used to have bottle rocket fights, hold them and chunk them at each other. I tossed one at a friend and it hit the ground then shot right at him and stuck under a strap that ran across the top of his shoe still spewing sparks [:D]...none of us, even him, knew he could tap dance [:D]
...A friend, Bubba, had his jeans pocket stuffed full of Black Cat's, well, he managed to light them...ran off slappin & hollerin' with his jeans exploding; blew up and burnt his pocket...and him [:D]
But have been shot at with Bottle Rockets. Kind of scary when You are going down the road on a motorcycle.
Had some Idiots use my 84 Comaro in 84 as a target. Asked them to stop they were drunk so you can guess their reply. Called the cops they said they were to busy. So I let them know I was headed out and considered them armed and so was I. Police got there real quick then.
I doubt there is a year I don't get a good burn.
Thats all I got to say about that. I will not inciminate myself. [:)]
Only thing I see is this huge puff of white coming at me - fast. Next thing I know, I'm running across his yard with my hands over my eyes.
Lost my eyelashes, eyebrows and my hairline was burnt back about an inch. He was about the same, but with powder burns under his fingernails with the fingers he used to light the stuff.
His Mom called my Mom to come pick me up. No lecture. She knew I had learned my lesson and didn't want to add insult to injury. None of my friends made fun of us. They realized it could have been much worse, so didn't make a joke of it.
Luckily, the heat pulse didn't do any permanent damage to my eyes. My vision was cloudy for a few days, until my corneas shed the outer layer of cells that had been cooked.
Ammonium perchlorate. Same solid rocket fuel used in the space shuttle.
One of our group twisted his ankle badly as we ran laughing from the scene. Does that count as a fireworks mishap?
Brad Steele
On the way home start shooting bottle rockets out of the car window. Evidently spark landed in one of the boxes and all HELL broke loose inside the car. Rockets and flares were bouncing around and hitting us.
Before my bud could get the car stopped, I bailed out. IMO at approx 40MPH. I was barefoot, and when my foot hit the pavement it turned it on side and sanded a good portion off. That was the worst of the MANY road rash injuries I had. Luckily no broken bones etc.
That was it for swimming that summer. Couldn't because the water infected my wounds.
My bud got the car stopped and bravely dragged the now on fire boxes of the few remaining fireworks out of the car. But the back seat was on fire and nearly all the interior had some type of burn damage. Altho his grandpa was TOTALLY PO'D, we were lucky he had Grandma w/a sense of humor who saved us from severe punishment.
My only other memorable experience was lighting a Lady Finger stuck in fresh dog poop. It had a quick fuse and blew up before I got away. Had dog crap all over me and in my mouth.
But that wasn't near as fun as when I was running an experiment at work ( I know, not fireworks related but still...). We were using an acetylene torch to heat a billet. The torch was in a pyrex tube so we could control some cooling air over the billet. Well, we modified the torch lighting procedure one time so that it was lit before the cooling gas was flowing. The acetylene gas backed up into the tube (which was about 2 1/4" dia by 6 in. long). Exploded in my face. Powderized the pyrex, sent me flying backwards and I couldn't hear for a couple hours. The team I was working with treated me to a round of beers and we took the rest of the day off.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
fireworks of just about all shapes and sizes are illegal in ma, but for years this has been overlooked in a buddy of mines neighborhood. its a closed devolpment, one way in one way out type of deal. allt he neighbors are generally cool. well one year, a new arrival wasnt.
so we're outside blowing stuff up and what not and, almost immediatley after lighting one of those square boxes with 25 little rockets in it, a cruiser comes around the corner. well wouldnt you know it, and i swear in all honesty this wasnt planned, one of the rocket went and caused to box to tip up on end. we were 20 feet away and couldnt have planned it if we tried. with this thing up on end, it was pointing right down the road at the cop car. it caught 4 or 5 direct hits and a whole lot of close misses. damn near poop myself. family connections kept us out of the klink, but it was a close one.