Devon Staples and his friends
had been drinking Saturday night in the garden of a friend’s home in Calais,
eastern Maine, US, when he lit the firework and died instantly said Stephen
McCausland, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.
He explained: ‘Apparently, he
thought that was a great idea.
‘His friends they thought
dissuaded him from doing it, and the next thing they knew, he ignited the
fireworks and he was killed instantly.
Staples’s brother Cody told the
Daily News of New York that he was a few feet away when his brother lit the
firework and was the first to come to his side after it exploded.
The 25-year-old said: ‘There
was no rushing him to the hospital. There was no Devon left when I got there.
‘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.’
Staples’ death is the first
fireworks fatality in Maine since the state legalised fireworks in 2012,
authorities said.
Lawmakers had voted to repeal a
1949 law banning fireworks, reasoning the industry would create jobs and
generate revenue.
State fire marshals were also
investigating several other Fourth of July fireworks accidents involving
injuries in Friendship, Jefferson, Lebanon and Woodstock. They said most of the
accidents involved burns and eye injuries.
In Montana on Saturday, a
32-year-old man was killed at a Billings home in a fireworks accident involving
a mortar tube.
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.
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