Avoid unfortunate burns this Fourth of July

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Most people know that fireworks are not allowed in Lubbock city limits, but, with more than 53,000 Lubbockites living outside the city limits now, you can expect to hear a lot of blasts from well populated neighborhoods over the next few days.

That has some doctors worried.

Here it is four days from the 4th of July and we are already hearing fireworks at night.

Every year, thousands of people are rushed to emergency rooms after trying to stage their own fireworks show.

When that ends with the piercing sound of a siren, it’s a good guess that the fireworks fun left a devastating injury..

Dr. Sharmila Dissaniake, a burn surgeon at the UMC Timothy J. Harnar Regional Burn Center, says she has seen some really bad injuries where people don’t let go in time and the firework goes off in their hand. She says some injuries have left a mangled hand or taken an eye out.

But fireworks injuries are not the only reason they’ll see major burns this weekend.

Dr. Dissaniake says a lot of people want to barbecue over this holiday and they become careless.

“So while they’re having fun with fireworks, they’re also like throwing gasoline on the barbecue, and that’s not a good idea. Making your fire go higher is not great. Don’t do that. Don’t try to amp up beyond what your barbecue is designed to do. We see a lot of people injured every year.”

Other safety reminders this weekend, she says don’t get too close to fireworks or you could end up with your clothes on fire.

Kids are often injured after playing with sparklers which can burn at 2,000 degrees.

And finally, she says, please remember that when you burn fireworks in the wrong place with this dry weather, you could be putting a lot of other families at risk.

She adds, “The worst thing that could happen with fireworks is that you start a brush fire and that goes out of control. So clearly, we need to be responsible for all areas and not be lighting fireworks in places we shouldn’t.”

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