Washington man says playing with fireworks "is not big and it's not clever" after suffering permanent damage

He lit a firework while holding it in his hand

Author: Sophie GreenPublished 28th Oct 2024

A Washington man says that playing with fireworks "is not big and it's not clever" after suffering permanent damage to his right hand 10 years ago.

Dylan Cosgrove tells us that he is lucky to be alive after he lit a firework in his bedroom while holding it in his hand.

He is now urging others to not play with fireworks this bonfire night and attend an organised display instead.

Dyan said: "A friend of mine was selling fireworks and I decided to buy some. It was around Bonfire night, and I was just lighting them and throwing them.

"Then one of them was faulty, so when I lit it the fuse was too short. I lit it and it went off. Then I’m fairly blurry after that until I got to the hospital. It was really, really painful."

He continued to say: "It's not big and it's not clever. It seems like a good idea at the time, but it just takes one split second for everything to go wrong, it's not worth it.

"At the end of the day, it's a high impact explosive like it's not something to be messed around with. I can't stress enough how pointless it is because I gained nothing from it, and I lost too much because of it.

"It was just a split-second event that shakes you up. I've permanently lost the tip of my index finger. That's no longer there. I had to go through vast amount of physiotherapy for years, surgery for years.

"It can be so much worse than what it was with me. I can't see a world where it could ever be a good idea. Obviously then I thought it was a bit of fun and it wasn't a bit of fun, not even really beforehand it wasn't fun. A split second and then everything went wrong."

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