Goshen firefighters offer fireworks safety tips

Jun. 30—GOSHEN — The Goshen Fire Department on Wednesday demonstrated safe fireworks handling and disposal for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday festivities.

To start, GFD Sgt. Michael Masbaum described ways to prepare a fireworks area for fun and safe festivities.

"Try to be on an asphalt or concrete pad like we have here today," Masbaum said. "If you don't have access to that, make sure that you saturate the area that you will be lighting your fireworks with a garden hose or buckets of water. Make sure it is completely saturated so it will lessen the chances of having a grass fire that can potentially spread to your home, garage or vehicle.

"Another thing is to have a bucket, a kiddie pool, something to hold water," Masbaum added, "so that when once you light the fireworks and they are completely done, you can pick them up in a safe manner and put them in the container of water so that way they can be completely cooled overnight."

Masbaum then explained that having an ABC extinguisher is also important, noting that "if you don't have access to that, use a garden hose that will be long enough to reach the area where you will be lighting your fireworks."

Masbaum also commented on sparkler safety for children.

"The sparklers the kiddos really love and run around with, we need to be extra careful with those," Masbaum said. "Those can burn from 2,000 to 2,500 degrees, so that can cause a severe burn in a short matter of time."

Chief Fire Inspector Scott Thomas added, "In the city of Goshen, I know this year so far we've had one house fire caused by the improper disposal of fireworks. They threw it in the trash can too soon and placed it against the house that caused the house to burn."

Masbaum also commented on the event that destroyed a Goshen home this year.

"Just like Chief Thomas stated, we had that fire on the west end of Goshen that was started by improper disposal," Masbaum said. "It's a tragedy, because that family lost a good portion of their home and everything."

Masbaum then talked about the city ordinance for lighting off fireworks.

"Consumer fireworks are allowed by state legislation and city ordnance from 5 p.m. until two hours after sunset — approximately 11:30 p.m. — from June 29 through July 9, with the exception of July 4 fireworks are allowed from 10 a.m. until midnight," Masbaum said, directly citing city code. "Any other times require a Board of Works approval and must be on real estate owned by a government entity. Fines for violation may be up to $500 per incident."

Injuries can be serious if not handled properly, he noted.

"Most frequent are hand and face (injuries), because people will approach the fireworks too early," Masbaum said. "Some of the fireworks work in stages, so people will approach that and be looking at it and it will go off again. And hands, obviously people try to light bottle rockets and throw fireworks from their hands. There's been a couple times when people had some pretty severely mangled hands from improper handling."

Another firefighter also commented on safe disposal of fireworks.

"Since we're not sure how much fuel is left in there, we're always going to approach with caution," Goshen firefighter Lucas Wickey said. "We're not just going to go right over the top and grab it, so make sure we're all empty here and we'll through it here in the bucket. We'll let that soak to make sure all the heat is dissipated."

The firefighters encouraged people to be aware of their surroundings while lighting off fireworks, noting that improper handling of fireworks is a big deal and is a costly mistake for many across the United States.

"I know nationwide there are about 19,000 house fires caused by fireworks," Masbaum added.

For more information on firework safety, visit www.nfpa.org. For more information, call the Goshen Fire Department at 574-533-8686. For complaints, call central dispatch at 574-533-4151.

Joseph Weiser is a photojournalist for The Goshen News. Contact him at joseph.weiser@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2349 or (cell) 574-202-8479.