Video of the week 27 Fireworks Gone Wrong!

[Joeylc]

FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS TENT EXPLOSION
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/WAfVHNKOduo&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/WAfVHNKOduo&rel=0</a>

[Joeylc]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/oVcF7uD3eIA&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/oVcF7uD3eIA&rel=0</a>

[Joeylc]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/djPPF9JwU7A&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/djPPF9JwU7A&rel=0</a>

[Joeylc]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4gtiq7NT3_4&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/4gtiq7NT3_4&rel=0</a>

[Joeylc]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/z-2ZB1CbNJ4&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/z-2ZB1CbNJ4&rel=0</a>

[StatFreak]

FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS TENT EXPLOSION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAfVHNKOduo

I guess that business is up in smoke. 
At least the camera guy got to see a free show.


Regarding "The Dangers of Fireworks" video in reply 1:
According the video, last year a total of FIVE  (FIVE!) people lost their lives as a result of being stupid. FIVE. out of three-hundred MILLION.  I say we consider them for the Darwin award and move on.

More people died choking on their dinner; let's ban food.

[brichter]

Not to mention, looking down the tube of a loaded mortar is just as stupid as looking down the barrel of a loaded gun.

There are some people you just can't protect from themselves. Time for the gub'mint to realize that and move along.

[jay]

Law of Natural Selection.... I say it improves the remaining gene pool.....

[StatFreak]

Law of Natural Selection.... I say it improves the remaining gene pool.....

Hence my recommendation for the Darwin award.

[Neonkiss]

Not to mention, looking down the tube of a loaded mortar is just as stupid as looking down the barrel of a loaded gun.

There are some people you just can't protect from themselves. Time for the gub'mint to realize that and move along.

The proper way is with a flash light and a mirror. Actually that one of my jobs.
I have to inspect the mortar tubes to be sure everything went off. When shows are fired electronically it's hard to tell if all the shells fired. especially during the grand finale.
Afterward all mortar tubes need to be inspected no sooner than 30 min after the show.

[jdkmunch]

Reminds me of the Naked Gun -  Nothing to see here!!

[Joeylc]

Red Neck Fireworks!
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/y9uL8iRL6nI&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/y9uL8iRL6nI&rel=0</a>

[jdkmunch]

lol ...


That is funny

[tjkeller]

Aw man....just ANOTHER reason why I love this day!!!
It's like watching NASCAR and waiting to see a crash! 
I was hoping the Redneck setup was going to EXPLODE!!!
Gotta love all the excitement & thrill!   

[Op-Bell]

I like that first video. I'd have paid a couple of bucks for that show.

Re number 2: the CPSC (consumer product safety commission) has been beating this drum for years  - they'd even ban Safe and Sane Naif and Lame consumer fireworks if they could. Shoot, they'd probably like to ban matches. Just another power grab by a bloated government agency trying to make themselves relevant. I like it that they got Nancy "Nanny" Nord to do the voice-over for this particular lame propaganda. She sets the tone by sounding just like an elderly lady complaining about kids that wear their hats backwards. Four inch mortar, polystyrene head? How can anyone fail to be impressed by the result? </sarcasm> We have only her word for it that they actually used a firework, and not a hand grenade. And in spite of their best efforts, they failed to set the model on fire in the next segment (hint to CPSC: use some gasoline next time).

Check out this article about their ludicrous overkill persecution of chemical suppliers. Luckily United Nuclear fought them off - I contributed to their legal costs - and this incident provoked an aggressive push-back and a lobbying group that have, so far, held the safety fascists at bay. It's still possible to buy chemicals and supplies. Morons that grind chlorate and sulfur on their kitchen tables deserve to lose their heads (and their roofs). No sympathy.

[Op-Bell]

I found some interesting statistics in an old book (A History of Fireworks - Alan Brock, 1949). Between 1903 and 1909, 1633 people were killed by 4th of July firework accidents. That's about 235 people a year. There were 35,000 non-fatal injuries in the same period (5,000 a year). In 1910, a national society for the prevention of accidents inaugurated what was known as the "Safe and Sane Fourth" movement. The result was soon apparent - in the next three years, deaths fell to 131, 57 and 41, respectively, with injuries down to about 950 a year. Rather a dramatic drop, and it was achieved by education, not regulation. Some legislatures jumped on the bandwagon and banned fireworks altogether, but in those areas, deaths and injuries increased. I don't have any details about what sort of fireworks were around at that time but there's a note in the book that in 1925, the Michigan legislature introduced a bill banning fireworks containing dynamite, nitroglycerine or picric acid. Yikes.

Elsewhere in the Brock book he mentions that in the 1800s it was quite common for fireworks to be made in upstairs rooms, with a wood stove or open coal fire for heating, by candle light, and sometimes by people who were smoking. It's a wonder anyone lived to pass on the knowledge. The canonical firework accident of all time was in Madison Square, NY in 1902, at a display to celebrate the election of William Randolph Hearst to Congress. There were 10,000 people in the square, and sixty loaded mortars were just standing on the pavement unsupported in any way. One of the first shells fired detonated in its tube, knocking over the others and lighting the fuses, so that six and nine inch shells were fired directly into the crowd. 15 people killed, 80 lost at least one limb, less serious injuries in the thousands. Since then there have been regulations about that sort of thing. Neonkiss would know.

[brichter]

<rant>

Thanks to the CPSC, I couldn't legally purchase most parts for my daughter's motorcycle because they have deemed that the lead in motorcycle batteries, along with the brakes, exceed the limits set forth in the the Consumer Products Safety improvement act of 2008.

Since hers is a smaller motorcycle (because she is smaller), the CPSC has determined that the motorcycle is a toy, and therefore subject to the same limits as the toys imported from China that were manufactured with lead-based paint that Congress was targeting when they passed the bill.

I'd like to see any child put the battery or front wheel of a motorcycle in their mouth, as they were doing with the toys in question. After much pressure from many groups, the CPSC was forced to grant a 1 year stay of enforcement last April. Disaster was averted for a year, but we've no idea what will happen next April when the stay expires.

Meanwhile, my kid couldn't ride her dirt bike because the dealers had been told they'd be fined millions for selling me any part of a motorcycle determined to be a toy by the CPSC.
</rant>


Op, I too contributed a lot of money to the lobbying groups to fight this ridiculous excuse for a nanny government bureaucracy. The sad thing is, there's a need for an agency to peform those duties, but the existing agency has gone so far beeyond the pale as to be worthless, and even a huge detriment, to our society.

[ashyron]

In reguards toi reply 11...... This is SO SOMETHING I could see my family doing but probably wouldn't be bright enough to have water ready.

[StatFreak]

In reguards toi reply 11...... This is SO SOMETHING I could see my family doing but probably wouldn't be bright enough to have water ready.

Is that a cigarette in his mouth in the frozen frame that displays before one plays the video?    Okay, I know it's probably a piece of tape or something, but it sure looks like a cigarette.

[Op-Bell]

There's a text box pops up on the video to say it's a piece of sticky tape.

[StatFreak]

There's a text box pops up on the video to say it's a piece of sticky tape.

Actually, though, the frame that I'm referring to is the one randomly chosen by EwwToob as the static image presented before the video is viewed. The image is located at precisely 1:40 in the video and is only visible for about 1/8th of a second (just 3-4 frames). The tape is in his mouth and it looks like he's smoking it. I find it odd how often Ewe-Tubes* manages to pick the most obscure image from the video to display as a representation of content, considering that it is probably selecting an image located at a fixed percentage from the beginning.




*Where's an emoticon of an ovulating sheep when you need one?