Police: Fireworks blast injures 11 in Pelham
PELHAM, N.H.—Two children were severely injured in a fireworks explosion and fire that began on the rear deck of a Pelham home where fireworks were being set off, police said Wednesday.
In all, 11 people, including five children, were injured in the explosion reported at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Family members say an 8-month-old girl was injured, and a 2-year-old boy is in a medically induced coma.Look, it's always a tragedy when young kids get hurt because adults are behaving badly. No one argues that. It's that the reaction is so incredibly predictable:
Pelham Fire Chief Jim Midgley said the state Legislature should take a hard look at controlling the personal use of fireworks and preached caution.Yes. Because making sparklers illegal is going to stop stupid people from doing stupid things. The sound you hear is my eyes rolling so hard I nearly detached my retinas. Now, I can be somewhat sympathetic to Chief Midgley - he's more than likely frustrated after viewing a horrific scene that was depressingly preventable. Five minutes (or less) of set-up, where the fireworks are kept a good distance from the children, and the chance of something like this happening drops to near zero.
But because someone thought it was a good idea to be setting off fireworks with an 8-month old baby present (hello? The noise *alone* was damaging enough), the rest of the state of New Hampshire should suffer? People do stupid things all the time - the mere existence of YouTube should be ample evidence of that - with a wide variety of commonplace items. If we banned everything that folks could potentially misuse to injure themselves, we'd be relegated to padded rooms with Nerf™ furniture...
No matter how hard we try, we can't protect stupid people from themselves...
That is all.
6 comments:
Nerf furniture probably emits toxic fumes. I'm sure some network news show is working on the story right now.
Yep, city here outlawed fireworks sales within the city, so kids make their own. A friends teenage son was flown to Seattle yesterday after apparently accidently igniting his homemade fireworks in the house while making them.
Yep. Consumer fireworks are illegal here in the Peoples Democratik Republik. And in the last several days, there have been at least three suburban Chicago fire departments dispatched to "roof fires." Started by fireworks. The neighboring department went out for the front yard on fire. :-/
Hell, I've got some myself. But our betters know what's best for us, and will do everything they can to force compliance.....
Average IQ + 6 pack of beer = Moron
The sum of the parts is less than the value of any single part.
Gerry
Stupid people aren't going to care about the law. Fireworks have been illegal within city limits here since I was a kid, and we were still all kept up last night by 'em. Hell, the police have a hotline set up to report violators, and my mother has said it's impossible to get through--it's always busy. And this law is over 20 years old.
Give the guy a break. From what I've heard, he was not shooting off any fireworks at the time. It was a big neighborhood gathering and the younger kids were lighting sparklers before they had to go to bed. Sounds like one kid tossed his and it landed in a box of the good adult stuff.
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