Devon Staples, 22, of Maine/Florida
died after a fireworks mortar exploded on his head. This year there
have been a lot of firework related accidents. Folks having hands
blown off, chunks of legs removed, and so forth.
There was another
death but it was a little Black kid (12 year old Antonio Brade) so
its not really getting as much attention as the strapping young
Devon. By the way, this is going to be so all over the place. A
roller coaster of opinions even.
As you can imagine there was drinking
involved in this incident. Devon and his friends were blowing up
fireworks when Devon placed one over his head. His brother Cody said
“I was the first one who got there. There was no rushing him to the
hospital. There was no Devon left when I got there. It was a freak
accident...but Devon was not the kind of person who would do
something stupid. He was the kind of person who would pretend to do
something stupid to make people laugh...We're thinking he was just
waving his lighter around just joking and he might have caught part
of it and just lit it wrong. The pressure from the explosion that was
supposed to be 50 feet in the air, exploded directly above his head.
It did not take it off. It made a 'whump' sound, like a failed
explosion.”
He added “He's not an idiot. If the
thing had gone off right, it would have been fine, and we would have
told him not to do anything that stupid again. We grew up in Maine
and we grew up with access to a lot of fun stuff, and we had been in
dangerous situations and we all walked away from those fine.” As
someone that has lost a brother I can sympathize with him on that
level only. But my brother died from a heart attack at 32, not
drinking and playing with live explosives. I think people forget that
that's what fireworks are. Hell, we had them banned her in Los
Angeles when I was a kid. Before that it was explosion city on the
4th of July.
His mother, Kathleen Staples, wants
stricter laws in place like training courses before people are
allowed to use them. That will never happen. You can barely get guns
handled properly in that manner. Fireworks weren't even made legal in
Maine until just three years ago since 1949 so there will be a
learning process meaning more people will have to get wrecked before
things even out. “At least it'd be a little bit more than, 'Here
you go.' That's an explosive. They didn't just hand me a license and
put me in the car.” You don't need a license to drive a car to
drive just as you don't need a permit to get a gun. This is one of
those things where you don't care until it affects your life.
Kathleen also believes that they thought the mortar was a dud which
state fire marshal Joe Thomas disagrees with because it had been
fired previously.
Meanwhile Devon's father is upset at
how the media is painting his son. I haven't read anything that has
come out and bashed him. Its being reported as “guy worked at
Disneyland, guy drank, put firework on head, died.” I have too much
respect for explosives, my face, and life to ever put a firework near
my face let alone a fucking mortar. That thing is fucking huge. When
I was little we had fireworks but they just shot sparks and screamed.
They didn't leave the ground. And when one didn't work it was stared
at for a few minutes or sprayed with water because fuck taking
chances.
Could this have been prevented? Of
course. You can, and the family will, blame firework regulations.
That doesn't bring anyone back to life. Maybe blame the alcohol. Why
didn't anyone say it was a bad idea to get drunk and shoot off
fireworks? Yeah, millions of people likely do it each year and a few
get hurt but that doesn't mean it is fool proof. This is the kind of
death that makes you angry for longer because it is such a stupid way
to die and did not need to happen. This guy could still be alive
right now if he hadn't made a bad decision and I would be writing
about Bill Cosby admitting to drugging women.
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