Woman Seriously Hurt in Firecracker Accident

A North Hollywood woman was seriously injured Wednesday when she lit a large firecracker she recovered from a trash bin, believing it was a candle, Fire Department officials said.

Estella Rica, 54, suffered burns to her right hand and left foot, Los Angeles City Fire Department officials said. Rica told paramedics that she had recovered the 2-inch firecracker from a plastic bag in a dumpster behind her Victory Boulevard apartment.

Rica told paramedics she was in the kitchen of her apartment when the she lit the firecracker. When the fuse began to hiss, she dropped the firecracker and it exploded.

Rica was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, where spokeswoman Alexis Parkes said a plastic surgeon was attempting to reconstruct Rica’s badly damaged right hand.

The blast did not damage Rica’s apartment, a Fire Department spokesman said.