Floyd Temple, 61, was in his front yard setting off fireworks when he lit one pointing the wrong way and it hit him directly in the chest.
An Ohio man was killed Tuesday while lighting a fireworks display for neighborhood children.
Floyd Temple, 61, was in his front yard setting off fireworks when he lit one pointing the wrong way and it hit him directly in the chest, according to WTOL.
He was killed instantly, witnesses said.
"He tried to fire off a rocket that goes up into the sky and it backfired and took his chest off," said friend Benjamin Avalos.
Children who witnessed the incident are said to be "traumatized," neighbor Rick Tuggle added.
"They were sitting right there on the stairs when it happened," he said. "One of my kids was sitting right there on those stairs."
"We've been [shooting off fireworks] all day for the kids, give the kids a display," Avalos said. "All day long, all day long. He's a really nice guy, nice guy. He's my brother bro, I really love him with all my heart."
Local officials urged people to stay safe when handling fireworks.
“In this case, it was a very preventable accident,” Pvt. Sterling Rahe, spokesman for the Toledo Fire & Rescue Department, told the Toledo Blade.
Thousands of people are seriously injured each year in the country while handling the explosives. In 2016, four people in the U.S. were killed by fireworks and 11,000 were injured, according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission.
In 2015, New York Giants star Jason Pierre-Paul lost part of his hand to fireworks and spoke out in the PSA a year later, urging people to safely use the devices or not use them at all.
"I held on to the firework too long," he said.
The blast claimed his right index finger and left his hand severely damaged. He showed his scars in the public service announcement on behalf of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
"On my way to the hospital, all I could think about was my son, and if I was going to make it," he says in the video.
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