Michelle Rupp: Hi and welcome into this week’s edition of AFMC TV. We’re glad you’re joining us. Boy, we’ve got the bottle rockets, the sparklers and the roman candles ready to go. But before we light any of those ignitions, we’ve got a few questions for Andy Kelly. One of our firefighters out of North Little Rock. Thanks for joining me. So, what are some of the basics when it comes to fireworks safety do you, I mean obviously you can’t just shoot them anywhere you want to find like a flat surface.
Andy Kelly: Right. The biggest thing I would say is going to be if there’s a burn ban in effect your surroundings for the yard’s grass fields, things like that. But definitely want to be on a solid flat surface.
MR: Is it a good idea to have water nearby just in case.
AK: Absolutely water hose. If you can, if you don’t have that access, I’d say fill up a few buckets the more you have, the better off you’re going to be
MR: Better to have it and not need it than something happen. Talk about the burn bands and maybe a little bit about if a person is caught when that county is under a burn band. Some of the things that happened then.
AK: So, the bourbon is basically going to be based off of the temperature and how the grass is at that time. As far as what would happen. I mean you very well get a ticket. It’s kind of going to be up to how that officers feeling at that moment when he shows up. So, you know, they might tell you put everything out, you know, get some water. But more likely you’ll get ticketed for it, the price, I don’t know what that costs.
MR: Sure. I’m sure it won’t be cheap regardless. Talk a little bit about your experience as a firefighter on in and around 4th of July and maybe some of the experiences that you’ve witnessed as a result of maybe fireworks.
AK: So, I mean, I’ve obviously worked fires from fireworks, whether it’s a grass fire, we had, I was on shift last year and we actually had a little house fire because the kid shot one into the living room, therefore couch caught on fire. but I’ve also worked on where, you know, with Children, you know, not letting go and they’re trying to hold it and uh, you know, throw it up in the air and not letting go and it actually kind of burn them explode and it’s, you know, it’s tough to see that. But, you know, I bet you they don’t do it again.
MR: It’s a hard way to learn a lesson, isn’t it? So, what would be some advice you’d give to parents?
AK: At least have, you know, your water available have adult supervision around. you know, I’ve, I’ve got a teenage daughter, I’ll let her light them. But I wouldn’t, you know, if I had a adolescent or something like that, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t let a child actually light them off. I know as she was growing up, I’d take her up there with me, I’d like we kind of step back. So, I mean, you can still have fun doing it that way and it’s just a safer way to do it.
MR: Is there anything we need to keep in mind when we are going to go purchase fireworks, getting a box of sparklers or roman candles, whatever.
AK: You know, I think I live over in Cabot and I know the people that we go to they’re very knowledgeable. So, you know, ask questions when you’re buying them, just, you know, don’t be afraid to say, you know, hey, is this kind of a dangerous one? Should I, you know, steer clear of it? But that’s what I would do, just ask the sellers plenty of questions and
MR: If you like one and it’s a dud or kind of fizzles, it doesn’t explode. What do you need to do?
AK: Walk away from it, give it, give it several minutes. You know, if you, if you got the water hose there, go ahead and stand back, spray it down. If you don’t, you’re using a bucket, give it a few minutes, grab the bucket and kind of toss it on there because I could still go off.
MR: At the end of the day. Is it better to just leave it to the professionals and go watch the displays?
AK: It really is, you know it really is but I get it. I understand you know it’s fun to do but it’s also dangerous to do.
MR: It is fire after all.
AK: Exactly right.
MR: Okay. Anything else that we need to keep in mind? I guess I always have someone with a with a phone that could call 911.
AK: A phone readily available first aid kit just in case somebody does get burned. But I think that you know having a water hose or buckets of water is probably the biggest besides adult supervision.
MR: If someone does get burned do they need to throw water on it or?
AK: It’s kind of different. I mean in our experience you know what we’re going to do is we’re going to apply like a saline solution and kind of you know if it’s just like a first degree where it’s just right there on your hand or something you might have some burnt particles and kind of we’ve got spray and it’ll kind of just move all that away. And then you know if it’s a child it’s going to be a little more delicate, but you know water 4 x 4 pads. Gauze kind of thing. And then if it blisters put some you know ointment on there to help with that.
MR: Okay. Alright Andy Kelly. Thank you so much. Happy Independence Day
AK: Happy Independence Day.
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