Fireworks have been a part of Fourth of July festivities since the first official celebration of Independence Day in Philadelphia in 1777. These early displays were much simpler than the highly choreographed and colorful shows we see today at the end of large celebrations. Over time, these displays have not only become more elaborate but have also expanded beyond public events to include small backyard gatherings, or other informal (and usually less supervised) environments.
While fireworks are widely used, they come with safety risks and legal restrictions, especially as injuries continue to occur each year. Federal law regulates fireworks manufacturing, labeling, and safety standards, while state and local laws determine the windows in which fireworks may be sold and used, if at all. Open windows are typically around holidays like New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Fourth of July.
In Georgia, fireworks are available for purchase year-round, but use is limited to certain holidays under state law. Local governments can also place additional restrictions on how and when fireworks are used in their area. In Atlanta, for example, fireworks are generally allowed during state-approved holiday periods, including July 3 and July 4, but users must follow city rules regarding noise ordinances, restricted areas, permitted hours, and sobriety.
In this study, Monge & Associates partnered with data visualization firm 1Point21 Interactive to analyze the most recent five years of emergency room injury data. Our goal was to estimate national totals and raise safety awareness around the risks associated with firework displays and consumer use.
Read on to learn more.
Key Takeaways:
- 68% of firework injuries occur during the month of July. By daily share, the Fourth of July represents the single day with the most firework injuries at 28%. In comparison, New Year’s Day records 5.5% of all firework injuries.
- About 29% of all firework injuries are severe injuries, including third-degree burns, amputations, and blindness.
- Half of all patients visiting the emergency room because of a firework incident experience thermal burns. The most common firework injury was thermal burns to the hand, affecting 14.4% of patients.
- About 55% of injuries occur to individuals actively handling fireworks, while nearly a quarter occur to bystanders.
- About a third of all firework injuries occur to individuals under the age of 18. Sparklers are most likely the reason, with 61.7% of all sparkler injuries occurring in this age group.
Firework Injuries Peak on Fourth of July
Fireworks cause an estimated 8,041 hospitalizations every year. By month, July records the most incidents, with a share of 68% of all injuries. This is over eight times more than the next leading month, June, with a share of 8.1%, and over nine times the subsequent month, January, with a share of 7%. June injuries may represent cases brought by early firework sales leading up to Independence Day, while January injuries are most likely to represent cases tied to New Year’s celebrations.
However, the single day that reports the most firework injuries in a given year is July 4. Twenty-eight percent of all cases occur on this day.
Below is a full list of the top ten days with the highest share of firework injuries:
- July 4 (26.8%)
- July 5 (16.8%)
- January 1 (5.5%)
- July 3 (5.0%)
- July 6 (4.0%)
- July 2 (3.0%)
- December 31 (2.3%)
- July 7 (1.8%)
- July 1 (1.6%)
- June 30 (1.2%)
Types of Injuries Caused by Fireworks
Twenty-nine percent of all firework injuries are of high severity. Severe injury cases include incidents involving amputations, blindness or serious eye trauma, third-degree burns, skin grafts, surgery, ICU care, and other injuries indicating major trauma or long-term impairment.
Less severe cases include more minor burns, cuts, abrasions, irritation, and other injuries that were treated without surgery, intensive care, or lasting functional damage.
Burns
By injury type, burns were most common, affecting about half of all patients. Thermal burns are those involving direct heat, like touching a lit sparkler or being hit by a firework explosion. Chemical burns (0.11%) involve corrosive substances, and scald burns (0.01%) involve boiling water and steam exposure, which are both much rarer when handling fireworks.
Surface Injuries
Surface-level trauma was also common, with contusions and abrasions affecting about 17% of patients, followed by lacerations at nearly 15%.
Fractures
Nearly 1 in 10 firework injuries result in fractures, often from the force of explosions or impact from debris. In some cases, fireworks explode directly in the hand, leading to open or displaced fractures of the fingers. Fractures can also occur indirectly, such as falls during firework activity. For example, when a startled dog pulled a person to the ground, resulting in a fractured humerus.
Amputations
Amputations, which often result in permanent damage, affect about 5.8% of patients. Injuries involving foreign bodies (4.6%) and internal organ damage (3.7%) further demonstrate that many cases extend beyond surface-level harm.
Below are the most common injuries and body part combinations in firework-related incidents:
- Thermal burns to the hand (14.4%)
- Thermal burns to the finger (8.6%)
- Contusions or abrasions to the eye (8.4%)
- Thermal burns to the face (5.8%)
- Lacerations to the face (4.6%)
- Amputations to the finger (4.2%)
- Fractures to the finger (3.8%)
- Thermal burns to the lower arm (3.3%)
- Thermal burns to the upper trunk (3.8%)
- Foreign body in eyeball (2.9%)
- Laceration to the hand (2.9%)
- Contusions or abrasions to the face (2.9%)
- Thermal burns to the upper leg (2.1%)
- Thermal burns to the lower trunk (2.1%)
- Thermal burns to the lower leg (2.0%)
- Fractures to the face (2.0%)
- Internal organ injury in the head (2.0%)
- Anoxia to more than 50% of the body (1.9%)
- Thermal burn to the eyeball (1.9%)
- Poisoning of more than 50% of the body (1.8%)
Who is Getting Hurt?
Fireworks present a unique public safety risk as they may injure not only the individuals directly handling or igniting them, but also bystanders, who may be attending a display or simply nearby. Fifty-five percent of all firework injuries occur to users, while nearly a quarter occur to bystanders. About 20% of cases correspond to narratives with insufficient detail to specify the patient’s role.
A common example of a bystander injury includes eye trauma caused by stray debris from viewing a firework display, where fragments may become lodged in the eyelid or eye.
However, injuries are not limited to spectators. In one instance, a woman walking her dog fell and injured her knee after the animal was startled by nearby fireworks. In another case, a child riding a bicycle past a display was struck in the face near the eye by a firework, resulting in a facial abrasion.
Firework injuries have been recorded across all ages. However, they are most concentrated among young adults aged 18–24 (17%), adults aged 25–34 (18.3%), and adults aged 35–44 (15.5%).
In most cases, these are likely the groups of individuals that are actively handling fireworks, but, unfortunately, children and adolescents also make up a substantial portion of injuries. Individuals under 18 account for nearly a third (32%) of all firework injuries. This could suggest injuries as a result of direct use, malfunctions, or bystander exposure during family-centered events.
Firework Injury Cases Involving Alcohol or Drugs
About 11.7% of firework injury cases among adults of legal drinking age involved alcohol or drugs. While much less common, these cases also occur among those under the legal drinking age, accounting for 1.3% of injuries in that group. The youngest reported case involved a 14-year-old.
By age group, adults aged 25–34 were most likely to have consumed alcohol or drugs during their injury, with 13.9% of cases falling into this category. By comparison, adults aged 55 and older showed lower shares overall, near 6%.
By individual age, 22-year-olds, 25-year-olds, and 26-year-olds accounted for the most alcohol- or drug-involved firework injury cases, representing 6.2%, 5.6%, and 5.6% of all such cases, respectively.
In addition, when looking at the share of injuries within each age that involved alcohol or drugs, 25-year-olds ranked fifth highest, with nearly one-quarter of all injury cases involving alcohol or drugs. The only ages with higher shares were concentrated among older adults and seniors, where alcohol- or drug involvement ranged from 26% to 100%, though these groups all had far fewer total cases.
Individuals actively handling fireworks were also more than twice as likely to be intoxicated as injured bystanders, with a share of 15.45% versus 6.97%.
Injury Cases by Firework Type
The majority of reported injury cases include unspecified fireworks (67.4%), as all recorded details come from what the patient shares. Among specified types, the top-mentioned fireworks causing injury were sparklers (10.3%), firecrackers (8.9%), roman candles (4.2%), and bottle rockets (2.8%).
By firework type, sparklers had the highest share of injuries occurring to users, with a share of about 75%, while 7.38% occur to bystanders, and the remainder was unknown. Bystanders were most likely to be injured by unspecified fireworks, accounting for 29.53% of cases, followed by bottle rockets (20.96%) and firecrackers (19.1%).
These are the shares of injuries by firework type that involved patients under 18 years old:
- Sparklers (61.7%)
- Roman candles (41.9%)
- Bottle rockets (34.9%)
- Firecrackers (34.85%)
- Unspecified fireworks (29.76%)
Tips for a Safe Fourth of July
Fireworks are synonymous with celebrations and often serve as the backdrop to lasting memories. Yet, the data shows they carry a consistent risk of injury, sometimes resulting in permanent damage. Many of these injuries are preventable by taking simple precautions, such as keeping a safe distance, avoiding direct handling, and staying aware of your surroundings, which can help reduce the risk.
When possible, attending a public firework display may also reduce risk, as professional handlers are trained and experienced in managing fireworks compared to at-home use. Pets, especially dogs, should also be kept indoors, as loud fireworks can startle them and lead to unpredictable behavior.
Methodology
We analyzed the most recent five years of emergency room visit data by the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a database operated and maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), to estimate firework injury cases across varying patient characteristics, severity, and injury types.
Fair Use Statement
If you would like to help raise safety awareness ahead of the Fourth of July, you are welcome to share our findings. We simply ask that any publication include a link back to this page so readers can access the full study.