Fireworks explosions like deadly one in Raytown are all too common, officials say
After a man was killed in an explosion caused by fireworks at a Raytown duplex Monday, federal officials lamented the frequency of such tragedies.
The explosion, reported before 7 p.m. Monday, left several people injured at the duplex in the 7500 block of Englewood Avenue. Investigators believe the man living at the home was manufacturing fireworks in his basement.
“Unfortunately we’ve seen this before in Kansas City way too many times,” John Ham, spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Kansas City division, told reporters at the scene.
Ham said the illegal manufacturing of fireworks isn’t unique to the Midwest, but from a law enforcement perspective it seems to be a bigger issue in the heart of America than elsewhere in the country.
In the past six years across the Kansas City metro, there have been four structure explosions caused by the illegal manufacturing of fireworks, Ham said. Three were homes. One was a business.
As of Wednesday, there were about a dozen active investigations into illegal manufacturing of fireworks across the metro, Ham said, adding that the number is higher now than it is in the winter because of the proximity to the Fourth of July holiday.
“This is when the demand is, so this is when the problem is,” Ham said, encouraging people to stop purchasing illegal fireworks. “The manufacturer process, as we’ve seen in Raytown this week, is extraordinarily dangerous, but so is the simple act of lighting off illegal fireworks because you have no idea what’s in that tube that you’re lighting.”
The Raytown explosion came the week before Independence Day, a time when emergency rooms typically see a dramatic increase in firework-related injuries.
Last year, 88% of the 485 total visits to emergency rooms across the state as the result of a fireworks injury happened from June 21 through July 11, the Missouri Division of Fire Safety wrote in a tweet Wednesday.
Ham asked residents to celebrate Fourth of July safely. Fireworks are “unstable by nature,” he said, encouraged anyone buying fireworks this Fourth of July to purchase them from a regulated tent or storefront establishment, which means the fireworks are inspected and licensed by fire marshals.
“It’s a timely reminder that the powders that are in pyrotechnics are unstable and they can absolutely do damage,” Ham said. “They can absolutely be lethal if they’re not handled by professionals.”
Past explosions around the metro
The past decade has seen a number of explosions caused by fireworks across the metro area that made headlines.
In January 2017, an explosion at JW’s Lawn and Garden Equipment, 12010 South U.S. 71 destroyed the Grandview business.
The blast and fire broke windows and damaged at least nine houses and 19 nearby apartments, according to city officials. No one was injured.
Several months later, two men suspected of manufacturing illegal explosive devices that led to a explosion at the Grandview business were indicted on conspiracy and other charges, federal prosecutors announced at the time.
In June 2014, six people were injured, including two children, when a home in south Kansas City exploded as the result of people making illegal fireworks. One of the men injured later died after the explosion tore off both his legs and one arm.
Ham at the time said it was discovered that fireworks were made in the basement of the home in the 9100 block of Tennessee Avenue. The explosion knocked the house off its foundation.
Three years earlier in Independence, a garage exploded, killing a man and throwing his body into the backyard of another house.
A nationwide issue
A recent report by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission showed a 50% increase in injuries and deaths caused by fireworks in 2020 compared to 2019.
In 2020, at least 18 people were killed in accidents involving fireworks, according to the report. The year before saw 12 deaths.
Hospitalizations increased dramatically in 2020 as well. Approximately 15,600 people went to the ER with firework-related injuries in 2020, an increase of about 5,600 people from the year before. Most of the injuries happened around Independence Day.
This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 12:39 PM.
CORRECTION: This story reflects that 88% of the 485 visits to emergency rooms across the state as the result of a fireworks injury in 2020 happened during a two-week period around the Fourth of July.
