Man nearly loses hand after firework explodes

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (WJXT) - A Florida man is warning others after he said a firework nearly cost him his hand.

He is now recovering in the hospital after a firework blew up while he was holding it.

“A blink of an eye, it happened to me,” Zion Thomas said.

Thomas said a firework severely damaged his hand.

“It makes me feel like I need to pay attention to more things like that. But I’m thinking ‘Hey, just like anybody else, it’s a firework. It’s going to be OK.’ But turns out, I wasn’t,” he said. “I lost my hand almost basically. I lost my front teeth, it’s chipped. My wrist is broken. My other hand, my palm is fractured. So it’s it’s pretty serious and comes out from fireworks.”

Thomas said the firework may have been expired, but the Jacksonville Fire Department said they are not able to confirm that.

Captain Eric Prosswimmer said they responded to his home as well as others.

“We definitely had calls. I know there were some serious calls where people took serious injuries as a result of fireworks,” he said.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 9,700 people went to the hospital after being injured by fireworks in 2023. Thirty-three percent of them suffered injuries on their hands.

Tragically, eight people died last year from injuries related to fireworks.

Prosswimmer said people lighting off their leftover fireworks should be extra careful and should not hold them in their hands.

“It is going to happen to you. You can say that it is not. It is going to happen to you,” he said.

Thomas wants to remind people to be safe when lighting fireworks.

The CPSC said the parts of the body that are most often injured by fireworks are the hands and fingers.

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