Devon Staples was killed instantly when he attempted to launch Fourth of July fireworks from his head while drinking with friends. His brother said there was nothing left of him.
Staples, 22, put a fireworks mortar on his head about 10 p.m. Saturday and lit the fuse, Maine Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland told
WCSH-TV.
"I was the first one who got there," Cody Staples, 25, the victim's brother, told the
New York Daily News. "There was no rushing him to the hospital. There was no Devon left when I got there. It was a freak accident … Devon was not the kind of person who would do something stupid. He was the kind of person who would pretend to do something stupid to make people laugh."
"Apparently, he thought that was a great idea," McCausland said. "His friends they thought dissuaded him from doing it, and the next thing they knew, he ignited the fireworks and he was killed instantly."
That accident in Calais, in northeast Maine, was perhaps the worst Independence Day fireworks injury around the country.
In Montana on Saturday, a 32-year-old man was killed at a Billings home in a fireworks accident involving a mortar tube,
reported The Associated Press, and in New Jersey, a 52-year-old man blew off a large piece of his left leg below the knee when he set off a tennis-ball sized firework in Leonia.
ESPN said two-time NFL Pro Bowler Jason Pierre-Paul of the New York Giants, 26, suffered serious burns on one palm and three fingers from fireworks. A source said the injuries shouldn't affect the defensive lineman's playing career.
In Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, two children – five and nine – were injured Sunday by fireworks, reported
WCVB-TV. The children were taken to Boston Children's Hospital, one with a serious hand injury and the other with burns.
Boston Police superintendent-in-chief William Gross had said one of the injuries might involve amputation, which was confirmed in later reports.
Earlier in the week, a Tennessee boy died after fireworks went off in his hand.
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