As we approach another July 4th weekend, Buzzly encourages everyone to be safe while using and watching fire works. Read the article below for a story about a fireworks mishap that cost a family their home.
About those fireworks you picked up for this weekend: Take them outside the house when you light them off. All the way outside.
Two Minnesota teens learned that lesson the hard way when legal fireworks they set off on the front porch later set their duplex on fire early Monday.
The fire left 13 people homeless because "they had a little fun at 1 a.m. in the morning," said Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard. "They didn't do anything criminal but what they did was stupid and careless. The important message here is just because they [fireworks] are legal doesn't mean they are safe."
The Twin Cities chapter of the American Red Cross is providing shelter, food and clothes to 13 people, including several residents who weren't home during the fire, said spokeswoman Lynette Nyman. She said the teens lived upstairs in a family that included a mother, her 21-year-old daughter, her six younger children ranging from 7 to 16 years old, and two grandchildren. At least two men, possibly three, lived on the first floor.
Firefighters were called about 1 a.m. to 1935 Roblyn Av. and found the second floor and attic engulfed in flames. The teens told an investigator they had set off fountain fireworks outside and on the enclosed first-floor porch, Zaccard said. Then they went upstairs, where their 21-year-old sister was babysitting in the mother's absence, he said.
About 30 minutes later the two teens smelled smoke and returned to find the porch afire. It shot up through inside walls to the attic in the duplex, built in 1890, Zaccard said. He said the two kids, in their mid-teens, compounded their problems by trying to douse the fire with pans of water before calling 911. Firefighters arrived minutes later, call, he said.
Smoke detectors sounded and everyone escaped safely, Zaccard said. No firefighters were hurt.
