Man Hit In Eye, Fireworks Explode In Hand: 4th of July Injuries

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD — Illegal fireworks injured four people around Anne Arundel County on the 4th of July, fire officials said in a press release. Independence Day also saw 18 small fires in the county.

Around 7:45 p.m., a 65-year-old man was hit in the eye by a firework in West River. The man was watching fireworks from about 50 feet away on the 5300 block of Beauvoir Court. Medics took him to the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital with serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.

An unlicensed fireworks show injured a little girl and a woman in Riviera Beach. The girl, 9, and the woman, 46, were watching the show from the area of Granada Road and Geneva Road when a firework hit them just after 9:30 p.m. The firework hit the girl in the arms and legs and the woman in the face. Both people refused to go to the hospital.

Fireworks also injured a man on the 8200 block of Railroad Avenue in Millersville. The man, 36, said a firework exploded in his hand just before 10 p.m. Paramedics took him to the Curtis National Hand Center at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital. He suffered serious injuries, but fire officials expect him to live.

A flying lantern started a small fire on the roof of a home in Deale. When firefighters arrived at the 800 block of Mason Avenue at around 8:30 p.m., they found one of the home's residents extinguishing a small fire on its roof. The flames did not cause any structural damage or hurt anybody.

The lantern, which came from a nearby property, started one of 18 small fires that the county saw between 5 p.m. and midnight on July 4. In the weeks before Independence Day, fire officials cautioned locals of the dangers of fireworks, but injuries still ensued.

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