By Rick Spruill
Independent Mail
A 13-year-old boy from Piedmont blew his right hand off in the back yard of his family’s home tonight.
Witnesses said the boy was handling fireworks outside his home on Elrod Place and was trying to put out a fuse when the fireworks exploded. He was taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital but his condition is unknown.
Neighbors searched the neighborhood for the boy’s hand.
Brittany Riggins, 17, of Piedmont, a neighbor, said the boy had wrapped 144 sparklers in electric tape and he was handling them when they exploded.
“I heard the bomb go off,” she said. “I came outside and saw everyone running toward the back yard of the house.”
Neighbors said the explosion sounded like a bomb or a plane crash.
Anderson County sheriff’s deputies went to the scene.
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Comments » 12
The_Sundance_Kid writes:
Probably best if you don't give instructions on how to do this.lol
We used to do it all the time as kids, but we had sense enough to get the heck out of dodge once the thing was lit.
Still not a good idea for anyone without pyro experince to do.
cleveland writes:
This was such an informative article.
Sincerely,
Airports are crowded at Thanksgiving
norman243#221988 writes:
Sad I don't think i would have my 13 year old handling fire works
huzzah writes:
As a veteran of many, many bottle rocket wars (my record was using 19 grosses in 1 day) I would have to say that this is just plain stupid. By the way, I would certainly not consider this a "firework," I would call this a homemade bomb.
What's the old saying about getting burned if you play with fire, I guess it holds true for IED's as well.
clemson_girl writes:
Prayers go out to this young man, but why in the world would you tie that many sparklers together??? To use an old cliche, sounds like an accident waiting to happen.....
mojo1231 writes:
Did this boy have any adult supervision? I agree with huzzah in saying this was more of a homemade bomb. I pray for a speedy recovery for this young man and his family. It is going to be a long road ahead.
The_Sundance_Kid writes:
I agree.
Best of luck to the kid.
kabb91169 writes:
My prayers go out to this child. Shouldn't the parents be charged with child endangerment for allowing this to happen?
Werewolf writes:
I'm sure the outcome was an accident, but it wasn't an "oops, I thought I could just tape them together and have a big sparkler". Search for "sparkler bomb" on youtube. He knew he was making a bomb.
clemson_girl writes:
News last night said he may even lose both legs. A very tragic situation which could have been prevented. I agree with mojo, where was the adult supervision?
Werewolf writes:
I understand why people are asking where the adult supervision was but seriously, how many times did we all light fireworks without supervision when we were 13? I did a lot. The parents probably didn't even know anything about it. He's just a normal 13 year old boy who wanted to do something "cool", which unfortunately turned out to be a terrible mistake.
DickRambone writes:
yeah, we all lighted fireworks when we were younger, but we had sense enough not to light 144 all at once!
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