‘If you’re putting a combustible in the hands of a child, is that safe or sane? It just doesn’t fit.’--Capt. Hank Raymond,Orange County Fire Department : Sentiment Burns in Some to Complete the Banning of Fireworks

Independence Day may be filled with fireworks, but Nancy Corcoran of Costa Mesa no longer wants anything to do with sparklers, Piccolo Petes or Ground Bloom Flowers.

In fact, she has stopped volunteering at a local soccer club’s stand in Costa Mesa selling the “safe and sane” fireworks. She has seen what their contents can do.

Her son, Christopher Doyen, 17, suffered second-degree facial burns Sunday after he and a younger brother emptied the contents of a dozen Piccolo Petes into a plastic box and ignited the powder with a match, police said. The box exploded in Christopher’s face, making the youth Orange County’s first fireworks victim this year.

“We will throw all our fireworks out,” Corcoran vowed Monday, moments after her son returned home from an overnight stay at UCI Medical Center in Orange. “After you see all the pain and all . . . we went through, I don’t want to see another firework again.”

Corcoran said her son is fortunate to be home to celebrate the Fourth of July. Christopher’s face was badly burned and his eyebrows singed, but his eyesight was unaffected, his mother said. He avoided further injury by not inhaling the lung-choking powder found in the cylindrical fireworks that emit a piercing whistle and a shower of sparks when lighted. Nor will scars remain on her son’s face, doctors told her.

But other Orange County residents, most of them children, haven’t been so lucky in years past. Some have had their fingers or hands blown off by legally obtained fireworks. Others have suffered long-term eye damage or severe burns on their faces, arms, legs and feet.

There were 29 fireworks-related injuries reported in Orange County hospitals from June 17 to July 16 last year, the peak fireworks season, and 278 in the state, according to the state fire marshal. But those numbers are thought to be “the tip of the iceberg,” said state Fire Prevention Engineer Ed Seits, because many injuries are either treated at home or at facilities that do not have to report to Sacramento. Other estimates in the county range from 50 to 106.

“We teach kids not to play with fire or fireworks,” said Fountain Valley Fire Chief Richard Jorgensen, former president of the Orange County Fire Chiefs Assn. “Yet, in the frenzy of celebrating the Fourth of July, we put dangerous fireworks in their hands. We’re saying it’s OK to use them and risk injury.”

Jorgensen and others who oppose fireworks other than in controlled settings say they don’t want to see injuries continue as another Fourth of July tradition. However, those who support the use of “safe and sane” fireworks say they are part of the holiday, and that more supervision and knowledge is needed to prevent injuries.

“Safe and sane” fireworks, a term used by the state fire marshal to describe fireworks that cannot explode or fly into the air, are legal in only seven Orange County cities: Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Orange, Santa Ana and Westminster. They are banned in unincorporated Orange County.

Critics say such fireworks are neither safe nor sane.

“ ‘Safe and sane’ is a misnomer,” said Jorgensen, who successfully lobbied for the ban of fireworks sales in his city. “I have personal problems with that. There are those called ‘safe and sane’ which can cause almost the same kind of damage as illegal ones.”

County Fire Captain’s View

Orange County Fire Department Capt. Hank Raymond made his point with the aide of a dictionary.

Fireworks are “explosives or combustibles,” he said, reading from a dictionary. Safe, he said, means “free from injury.” And sane implies making a “sound judgment.”

“The words have the opposite effect,” Raymond said. “If you’re putting a combustible in the hands of a child, is that safe or sane? It just doesn’t fit.”

In Christopher Doyen’s case, his mother said he did not use the fireworks as directed.

“He feels it was a wrong thing to do,” Corcoran said. “He shouldn’t have been fooling around with them. They used them like they shouldn’t have.”

Licensed pyrotechnists and fireworks manufacturers say parents must educate their children about the dangers of fireworks and that they must supervise them and encourage safe practices. “If you use them as they’re designed to be used, they’re basically harmless,” contended Jim Souza of Pyro Spectaculars, a Rialto company that staged fireworks for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1986 Statue of Liberty centennial. “It’s when people throw them or place them where they don’t belong that you have problems.”

Under state law, no one under 18 may buy fireworks where they are legal. But often fireworks wind up in the hands of those who don’t know the dangers.

This summer, in the third year of drought, dry roofs and shrubs are particularly vulnerable to fire, officials point out. But buildings and plants can be replaced, they said. Fireworks-related injuries can carry long-term scars that make it difficult for victims to lead normal lives.

‘No Such Thing as Safe’

Several families declined to talk about injuries to loved ones, but those who work with fireworks victims say injuries have ranged from shattered fingers and hands, from fireworks being held at the moment of ignition, to eye injuries from flying sparks.

“There is no such thing as a safe firework,” said Caryl Modrinski, executive director of the Orange County Burn Assn., an education and support group that works with patients in UCI Medical Center’s burn unit. She said many injuries occur when people tamper with fireworks, either by opening packages or mixing powder with other substances.

Burn patients from such mishaps have a difficult time recovering psychologically, especially in a beauty-oriented society, Modrinksi said.

“Initially, you’ve lost your identity,” she said. “That’s very hard for a child to deal with.”

Sue Martinez, nursing manager of UCI Medical Center’s burn unit, has worked with patients injured by fireworks. “I have yet to see any argument for them that makes sense,” she said.

Among the so-called “safe and sane” fireworks, sparklers are the most dangerous, County Fire Department Capt. Raymond said. Seemingly harmless, they burn at more than 1,000 degrees and cause about 30% of all fireworks injuries, he said. They are also a fire hazard. A sparkler ignited the largest fire in Tustin’s history, destroying a 90-unit apartment complex in 1980.

Illegal fireworks, many of them imported from China and Taiwan, include inch-long firecrackers, which can cause severe hand injuries, and M-200s, which have enough explosive force to blow off a finger, experts said. Those convicted of using such illegal fireworks face a fine of up to $1,000.

‘Out of Control’

Although proponents of legal fireworks argue that lack of precaution by a few ruins festivities for others, county and state fire officials won’t be satisfied until fireworks are banned everywhere.

People sometimes lose their sense of judgment in the passion of celebrating the nation’s birthday, Jorgensen said.

“It gets to be out of control,” he said. “With a little lack of control, people behave as they normally wouldn’t. Some people wouldn’t think of doing such things at other times.”

One problem, Jorgensen said, is that fireworks may be purchased by mail from states where all fireworks are legal. In Orange County, people who live in cities where “safe and sane” fireworks are outlawed can walk across the street to legal stands, he pointed out.

Instead, fire officials urge people to attend the large municipal-sponsored firework displays run by licensed pyrotechnists scheduled throughout the county tonight.

Raymond advised those planning to use legal fireworks to read instructions carefully, keep a bucket of water nearby, refrain from taking fireworks apart, watch for duds and avoid holding fireworks while they are discharging.

“Some say it’s our right to celebrate our independence,” Jorgensen said. “But while we do that, we burn other people’s homes and we injure people. We should use more respect on our most important national holiday.”