"Shook the whole house:" Bomb Squad dispatched, man hurt after trying to make his own fireworks



WEST WARWICK, Rhode Island -- A Rhode Island man is recovering after authorities say he was hurt trying to make his own fireworks. When the Bomb Squad arrived at the man's home -- they found a garage full of fireworks.

"The amount of explosion that we saw and the dust cloud and the noise was far greater than anything we get with consumer fireworks," Chief Deputy John Dean with the Rhode Island Fire Marshal's Office said.

Dean says a 40-year-old man from Coventry, Rhode Island was mixing explosives inside his garage on Eddy Street Sunday afternoon, July 3rd in an apparent attempt to make fireworks -- but some of them accidentally detonated.

"Scared the living daylights out of me," Ann-Marie Chiello, neighbor said.

"We heard a big boom. Shook the whole house. Then we heard two small ones after that," Kimberly Huling, neighbor said.

Huling called 911, only to have the Bomb Squad show up and tell her and her family to stay inside their home as they conducted a controlled detonation of the remaining homemade explosives.

WPRI spoke with the brother of the man who was hurt. He said his brother might have to go to emergency surgery for injuries to his hands and ear.

"It's fortunate that he did walk away because the amount of materials in there. Again, you don't want to play with fireworks," Dean said.

Dean said fireworks-related injuries spike around the Fourth of July and encouraged people to stay safe.

"The amount of injuries we see every year -- and, unfortunately, we'll be lucky if this is the only one we'll see," Dean said.

Authorities say the victim may face charges of tampering with fireworks.