Fireworks explosion hurts boy

Ambulance officers with the injured boy.

Frank Redward

A 16-YEAR-old Seelands youth, who blew off his right hand while making fireworks at his home on Friday night, has been taken to a Sydney hospital for further operations.

The youth severely damaged his family home in Riverside Drive when a mixture of chemicals exploded in the boy’s bedroom.

A spokesperson for Grafton Ambulance said the boy was lucky to be alive as fragments of the container were blasted into his left hand, chest and leg.

“The right hand was completely destroyed and by the time they clean up the stump it will probably be half his forearm as well,” the spokesperson said.

“The left hand was, I think, salvageable. It was working, but it had a few holes in it from shrapnel.”

He said the boy was conscious the whole time and told attending ambulance officers he had been making fireworks.

The spokesperson said the boy was taken straight to Coffs Harbour hospital, but was taken to Sydney yesterday.

The Ambulance Service was back on the site yesterday as specialist Rescue and Bomb Disposal squad officers examined the scene of the explosion. The spokesman said police destroyed a small amount of materials they found in the house.

Investigations into the circumstances surrounding the incident are continuing and police hope to speak with the boy once his condition allows.