Three hurt in fireworks accident

A boy lost his hand, a second child lost his fingers and a third youngster’s face and chest were burned, all injuries fromfireworkstheyset off in Pompano Beach, a city official said.

Thechildren, ages 8, 9 and 11, were near McNair Park whenfirefighterswerecalled at 7 p.m. Sunday.

The explosives, including possibly a mortar, were being set off from basketball courts inside the park, said Sandra King, spokeswoman for PompanoBeach FireRescue.

Paramedics took the children in three ambulances to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, King said.

It was not immediately clear how the children came in contact with the fireworks and their names have not been released.

At least two of the boys are brothers, King said.

In Florida, any device that goes airborne or explodes is illegal.

On Monday afternoon, Andre Smith, 27, said he didn’t see the explosion the night before but heard a boom just before the childrenwere maimed.

“The kidswere covered in blood, real bad,” he said. “One of my friends took his shirt off and wrapped it around the kid’s wrist...The other kid, all his fingerswere completely gone. One [child] had a big gash on his forehead.”

Yellow crime scene tape was still tied to the fence that surrounds the basketball courts — remnants of what appeared to be explosives littered the playing space inside.

Willie James, 68, lives about a block away fromMcNair Park, in a neighborhood between Florida’s Turnpike and North Powerline Road, north ofWestAtlantic Boulevard. He said he had just returned home from a family reunion in Georgia when he noticed a group of kids playing outside. From inside his house, he too, heard a boom.

“When I came back out, that’s when I heard the commotion,” James said. “I walked out to the middle of the street to see what was going on and I saw [fire rescue and deputies] down there with the road blocked.”

The boom startled him a little, but with fireworks going off in the neighborhood since before the Fourth of July, he didn’t think much of it.

Gary McCleod, 54, also had gotten used to the nightly sound of fireworks.

“My first impression was, ‘Okay, here we go. They’re about to get started again because it’s getting close to evening,’ ” McCleod said. “One boom is usually followed by another, then another, then another. But in this instance, therewas only one.”

Someonepassingbycalled 911, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Children and Families said by email that its Broward County contractor, the Broward Sheriff's Child Protective Investigations Section, is investigating the incident.

Dr. Heidi Cohen, an emergency room pediatrician who is assistant medical director at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, said every year the hospital sees children who have fireworks-related injuries.

“We see burns, finger injuries; we have seen traumatic amputations,” Cohen said.

She said kids also can have injuries to their ears and damage to their hearing when there is a blast.

Besides the children in Pompano Beach, at least four other people— including another child— have been seriously hurt this year.

Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.