A man suffered serious injuries Sunday night when a firework detonated and hit him in the neck, according to the Vancouver fire marshal.
The Vancouver Fire Department was dispatched 10:30 p.m. Sunday to respond to a report of a person with a traumatic injury who was having difficulty breathing at the intersection of West 21st and Harney streets in the Hough neighborhood, according to emergency dispatch records.
Vancouver Fire Marshal Heidi Scarpelli said the injury occurred after a 27-year-old man lit a firework that didn’t go off at first. When he bent over to examine the firework, it went off “directly into his neck,” she said. “He sustained severe injuries.”
The man was taken to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, Scarpelli said. The man’s name was not released Monday.
Scarpelli said she wasn’t sure exactly what type of firework was being used when the man was injured. Her office is investigating the incident and is working to track down witnesses.
Eileen Cowen, one of the man’s neighbors, said Monday evening that a loud blast jolted her and her husband awake Sunday night, and they heard an ambulance arrive barely 10 minutes later.
“By the time I got out there, the victim was in pretty bad shape,” she said. “Bleeding in the street.”
The next morning she sprayed blood from the sidewalk near her house, she said, so she could walk her children to school without them seeing it.
“It’s hard to see that happen,” she said.
Under current Vancouver city code, the use of fireworks is only allowed on July 4.
Scarpelli said Sunday’s fireworks injury is the worst her agency has seen in years. The last major fireworks injury occurred several years ago when a young man using a modified firework lost four fingers on one hand and severely burned the other hand, she said.
