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WEST JORDAN — A teenage boy was knocked unconscious and suffered burns Monday after fireworks exploded near his face.
West Jordan Fire Battalion Chief Reed Scharman said the 9:30 p.m. July Fourth incident near 7500 South and 3450 West happened after the boy leaned over a firework he had lit, believing it was a dud or the fuse had failed to catch.
The resulting explosion knocked Sami Kaivelata, 14, unconscious and left flash burns on his face, as well as bruising.
It just hit him and then bounced somewhere else, and just popped right in front of our faces.
–Mata Kauvaka
"My little brother was standing like right there, and it would have got him if I didn't push him," Sami said after returning home from Intermountain Medical Center. "It hit me on the eye, and then up right here."
He said he's lucky to only have a few bumps, burns and scratches. The whole family saw it happen.
Sami's cousin, Mata Kauvaka, said, "It just hit him, hit his forehead, and then bounced somewhere else, and just popped right in front of our faces."
"It wasn't nice. Everybody went crazy," he added.
That wasn't the only incident from over the weekend that firefighters are concerned about. A YouTube video shows teens in Kearns shooting Roman candles at each other.
State Fire Marshal Brent R. Halladay said, "Fireworks aren't toys," when we showed him the video. He says the teens are lucky someone wasn't seriously hurt.
"Any time you take Roman candles and you hold them and shoot them across at each other, I wouldn't want 1,200 degrees coming at me," he said.
Roman candles are illegal and burn very hot. In the video, a candle lands and explodes on a nearby truck. The teens don't seem to pay much attention and keep shooting each other.
"If you get hit in the face with the thing, because you can't move fast enough when it's coming at you, you're going to have some blindness, some burns," Halladay said. "To me it makes no sense at all other than just being dumb."
Written with contributions from Amy Joi O'Donoghue and Mike Anderson.
