July 4th, 1970 Phillipsburg, New Jersey
I was 10 years old and my Dad was letting off fireworks-I was less than ten feet away. One of them malfunctioned and blew his hand off and burned 80% of his body. I will never forget that scream or that smell of burning flesh as long as I live. He was in the hospital 9 months before he came home. The only thing that saved his eyes was the fact that he wore glasses. This ruined his life and his career. No one in my family or any of my friends that were there that day has ever touched fireworks again.