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Sedgwick County Fire Officials Issue Warning About Fourth Of July Safety

Marissa Elkind
/
flickr Creative Commons

Sedgwick County fire officials are issuing a reminder about the dangers of fireworks and hand-held sparklers that are often used to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday.

Division Chief Robert Timmons of Sedgwick County Fire District 1 says keeping a bucket of water nearby will help prevent injuries and fires during home celebrations.

Sparklers may seem like a less-risky firework alternative, but Timmons says it’s important to remember that sparklers burn at 1200 degrees, which is hotter than the temperatures needed to burn wood.

"A lot of us, the first thing we do when we’re having fun at celebrations is we light a sparkler and hand it to the kids," Timmons says. "Sparkler injuries account for more than 25 percent of the emergency room visits due to fireworks injuries."

Timmons says fireworks ignite more than 18,000 fires nationwide during the Fourth of July holiday period.

"We need to be very careful," he says. "If you are not comfortable with shooting off your own fireworks, please visit one of the public displays that are going on and enjoy them from a distance."

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Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar

 
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

 

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.