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07-03-2011, 06:18 PM
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 My Rank: STAFF SERGEANT Poster Rank:879 Female Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 852 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 8 Post(s)
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Lucky Chick Survives Firework Accident.
Cindy Collins was looking up, oohing and aahing with friends as New Year’s fireworks exploded in the night sky. The 18-year-old was lucky her gaze was directed towards the bangs, cracks, flickers and flashes above, because she took a direct hit from a stray firework under the chin. If she had been looking straight ahead, the incident could have been tragic. “There’s no words to describe how lucky I am,” Collins says. “It’s gotten to a point where, every time I think about it, I think I could be blind, I could be dead. That’s what my family doctor says every time he sees me.” Collins’ accident happened in Conception Bay South, where the first-year Memorial University student lives. She and some friends thought they were being safe, choosing to set the fireworks off in the sand near a softball field’s pitching rubber, away from homes, power lines and trees. The people lighting the fireworks were sober and the spectators stood and watched from many feet away. But well into their little light show, the kickback from a firework tipped over its base and pointed the remaining pyrotechnics at an unsuspecting Collins. After it struck her neck, the blast burned through her double-wrapped scarf and went under her coat, where it burned out and left a hole. “It sent me into shock,” Collins recalls. “It didn’t hurt. I just got hit by a fireball. I fell to the ground.” One of Collins’ friends lived nearby, so they took her there and discovered burns down her neck and chest. She was also covered in gun powder. Her friends cleaned her up and she went home. She rubbed Polysporin on the wound, posted a picture on Facebook and went to bed. It didn’t look serious, and she wasn’t in pain. “It didn’t seem like an issue,” Collins says. By the next afternoon, her mom convinced her to go to Emergency, where Collins learned she had first- and second-degree burns. The physicians wondered why she hadn’t come in the night before. “My doctor says that a matter of inches and a lot of things could happen. … He said because it hit me where it did, it’s a miracle.” The mishap didn’t interrupt Collins’ life that much. She couldn’t drive for two weeks, and that’s about it. The burns are healing better than expected and it’s likely there’ll be a little scarring, but the long-term damage should be minimal. “We were lucky — really, really lucky,” says Cindy mom, Debby Lake. Her story prompted Safety Services Newfoundland Labrador (formerly the Newfoundland and Labrador Safety Council) to issue a hazard alert, using Collins as an example of the potential risks consumer fireworks pose. The alert — the first of many the organization plans on issuing to email subscribers — also listed numerous safety tips from fireworks experts and safety organizations. Christina Marshall, Safety Services’ manager of occupational health and safety, hopes Collins’ story will help prevent future mishaps. “Maybe when Canada Day rolls around or somebody decides on a weekend, maybe for someone’s birthday, to blow off a few fireworks, maybe they’ll put some contingencies in place and maybe realize this stuff does happen, so you might want to be aware,” she says. “It’s just to raise awareness, really.”  · |
