Fourth of July fireworks safety tips...

It's nearly sundown here in the eastern time zone of the United States. That means that soon all sorts of amateur fireworks aficionados will be making a whole lot of noise and, the part that I hate, scaring the crap out of my poor dog. So, for those of you who are soon going to be reducing my poor dog to a quivering mass of fur, not to mention annoying me to no end, in the spirit of the holiday season, I have some firework safety tips for you:

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Trying to give the new residents in emergency departments across the country a real baptism by fire?

By Inquisitive Raven (not verified) on 04 Jul 2010 #permalink

It's still going on out there.

I like fireworks, just not under trees near a pond where birds are nesting. July 5th baby birds on the ground depress me.

My neighbors are chavs. Should I move? Or are these types ubiquitous?

Or live where I am where it has been raining steadily for the last two hours, and will probably continue past the 10pm start of the city's fireworks show. We did not bother to go the three miles to see it up close, we might see a glow of the display through the mist.

Every 4th of July and every New Years Eve, my neighborhood sounds like a war zone. Heck, we don't even need to have our own fireworks, we can just sit outside and watch everyone else's.

I love fireworks. My dog doesn't minds them at all. We did sparklers in the yard and watched the city displays while cooking our salmon. Memories of fireworks are some of the best memories of my childhood. A guy on our block bought a huge mass of them every year and put on a great show for the whole neighborhood (most of us couldn't afford much more than some sparklers, so this was a real treat for many of us).

It's unfortunate that there are avoidable accidents related to irresponsible fireworks use, but I would hate to see them disappear completely.

C'mon, Orac, it's one day a year--sit with your pooch and tell him/her it's "okay", and enjoy the show.

Those guys in the video weren't really very funny--just dopey.

By Knotfreak (not verified) on 05 Jul 2010 #permalink

This morning at 1AM I was hoping someone would blow his hand off.

I'm personally fond of fireworks, but I do get very twitchy when people set off big ones in our narrow, urban gardens. Gardens no wider than a single room (about 3.5m round here), each with several wooden sheds with tar-paper roofs, with board fences between them. Especially during a dry summer.

Has Orac tried earplugs for his dog?

By stripey_cat (not verified) on 05 Jul 2010 #permalink

At least they're fireworks. When my parents retired they moved to Florida. The first July 4th after they arrived the neighbors asked my dad "so - are you gonna shoot?" When he didn't get the question, they explained "oh, around here we shoot off our guns into the air".

I have a marginal preference for fireworks...