Every year, more than 9,700 people are treated in hospital emergency rooms for fireworks related injuries. More than half of these injuries are burns, and eyes are injured in nearly a third of cases.

That’s according to information from Mike Wilder, director of Boyle County Emergency Management. Wilder is cautioning Boyle County residents about the popular explosives in advance of the July 4 holiday.

Young people are often the ones injured in fireworks accidents, he said. The average age of patients injured by fireworks is 8.5 years, he said, and half of fireworks-accident victims are under the age of 15. That number gets worse for sparklers — about two-thirds of sparkler-related injuries happen to children ages 5 and younger, he said.

Wilder said a key contributor to the large percentage of children being injured is lack of adult supervision. Adult supervision was present in only 54 percent of cases. That means the key to lowering the number of injuries to kids is increasing adult supervision when fireworks are being used.

“Fireworks are not toys,” Wilder said. “They are devices that reach very high temperatures, are unpredictable by nature, and are much too dangerous for non-professional users. Everyone should be aware that fireworks incidents can happen in the blink of an eye and the safest amateur use of fireworks is none at all.”

For more information about fireworks safety, visit boyleky.com/emergency-management.