LOCAL : Woman Hurt by Large Firecracker
A North Hollywood woman was seriously injured today when she lighted a large firecracker she took from a trash bin, believing it was a candle, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said.
Estella Rica, 54, suffered injuries to her right hand and left foot. Rica told paramedics she had taken the two-inch firecracker from a plastic bag in a dumpster behind her apartment house on Victory Boulevard.
She said she was in the kitchen of her apartment when she lighted the firecracker. When the fuse started to fizzle, she dropped the firecracker and it exploded. She was taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank. Hospital officials could not comment on her condition.
Unsure of what the object was at first, officials called the Los Angeles Police Department’s arson squad to investigate.
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